Athletic identity and athlete characteristics as predictor of exercise dependence

Abstract

The athletic identity is a psychological dimension central in athletes, however, although suggested by the literature that high levels athletic identity may cause dependence on the subject, few studies have done. Thus, the goal was to understand the relationship between athletic identity and dependence of the exercise, considering the level of practice, competition level, the type of sport, age and gender of the athletes. For this purpose, we studied 442 athletes (307 females, 135 males) and used as instruments a scale of athletic identity (AIMS-Plus) and a scale of exercise dependence (EDS-R). The results indicate that from all the factors studied; only the athletic identity appears as a predictor of exercise dependence. We conclude that athletes with high levels of athletic identity can promote the addictive behaviors of exercise, than those with lower levels of linking to the role of athlete.