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Recent research has demonstrated that male athletes are facing increased pressure to meet a body ideal for their sport (Galli & Reel, 2009). In this exploratory study the authors developed a preliminary measure designed to examine weight pressures that are specific to male athletes. Using 203 Division I male athletes from three large U.S. universities, two factors were identified (coach/teammate pressures, and appearance pressures) from the 14-item weight pressures in sport scale for males (WPS-M). The athletes reported significantly more coach/teammate pressures than appearance pressures, and the results of multiple regression analyses indicated that both types of weight pressures contributed to the prediction of disordered eating and body change strategies. The findings are connected with research on body image and eating disorders among males and among athletes. Specifically, the pattern of relationships suggests that weight pressures operate independently of body image and affect in predicting unhealthy body change strategies in male athletes. Future research with diverse samples of male athletes is needed to further assess the validity and reliability of the WPS-M. Finally, suggestions for how sport psychology practitioners may use the WPS-M to promote the health and well-being of male athletes are provided.
Although at lower rates than women, men do suffer from eating disorders. Lifetime prevalence rates for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED), are 0.9%, 1 .5%, and 3.5% among females, as compared to 0.3%, .5%, and 2.0% among men (Hudson, Hiripi, Pope, & Kessler, 2007). Some researchers have suggested that this discrepancy in prevalence rates may be a reflection of men's unwillingness to admit body dissatisfaction and disordered eating (Andersen & Holman, 1997). Other researchers have argued that the social pressures men experience regarding appearance, attractiveness and body size may place them at-risk for problems beyond traditional eating disorders (Andersen, Cohn, & Hollbrook, 2000). For example, in contrast to women, whose body dissatisfaction emerges from a perception of being overweight and a desire to lose weight and be thin, men's dissatisfaction occurs along two pathways. Some men feel they have too much body fat and want to lose weight in an effort to become leaner. Other men perceive themselves as not sufficiently muscular and thus desire increasing strength and muscle mass (Jones & Crawford, 2005)....