Comparison of Compulsive Eating and Social Anxiety Thoughts in Athletic and Nonathletic Women

The purpose of this study was conducted to determine the differences between compulsive eating and social anxiety thoughts in athletic and non-athletic women.

The research method was causal-comparative and the statistical population of this study included athletic women in the age of 45-30 years old who were member of sport clubs and non-athletic women who were member of the Sarahay Mahaleh of district 22 of Tehran in 2016 Among them, 150 female athletes and 150 non-athletic women were selected by available sampling method and matched. The instrument was the Compulsive Eating Scale by Kagan & Squires (1984) and Social Anxiety Test by Hartman (1984). Data were analyzed using singlevariable analysis of variance analysis.

The results of this study showed that compulsive eating (F=4.790, P<0.01) and social anxiety thoughts (F=6.527, P<0.05) are significantly differences among athletic and non-athletic women.

It can be concluded from the results of this study that social anxiety and compulsive eating following anxieties due to being in the community led to an increase in coping activities of women in the form of exercise in dealing with anxiety thoughts and reduce their compulsive eating. Therefore, it is recommended that the clinicians reduce their anxiety and compulsion by encouraging the patient to exercise a variety of sports.