Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge of eating disorders among female college athletes. A questionnaire was distributed to female college athletes who specialized in sports with an increased risk for the development of eating disorders (N=100), those specializing in other sports (N=68), and those not belonging to varsity teams (N=79). The questionnaire consisted of the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26) and knowledge tests on risk factors, symptoms, and treatments/coping strategies. Although total scores for correct knowledge did not differ among the groups, the score for incorrect knowledge of treatments/coping strategies was higher in both of the athlete groups than in the non-athlete group. In addition, athletes with EAT-26 scores of 20 or more had more correct knowledge of risk factors but also had more incorrect knowledge for all subscales than athletes with EAT-26 scores of 10 or less, indicating that athletes with abnormal eating attitudes had a greater amount of incorrect knowledge.
