Female high school cheerleaders and athletes are no more likely to engage in potentially harmful weight loss efforts than the rest of their classmates, a new study has found.
The reason: high school coaches don't place as much pressure on the girls to perform and the student's lives involve far more than sports, said researcher Diane E. Taub, assistant sociology professor at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.Taub and coauthor Elaine Blinde surveyed 302 female athletes - 89 girls on cheerleading, pompom or majorette squads and 259 students who were not athletes or performance squad members. The study was conducted in December 1990 through February 1991 at four high schools in Southern Illinois.
The athletes participated in either volleyball, basketball, track, field, cross country, tennis or softball.
About 6 percent of the girls used some type of potentially harmful weight control method, such as vomiting or abusing diet pills, laxatives or diuretics. The figures were similar for the non-athletes.
Previous studies showed college-aged women who participate in sports have a higher incidence of eating disorders, such as bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa, than other college women.
"There is tremendous pressure on the elite female athletes to be thin by coaches and judges," eating disorders specialist Dan Kirschenbaum said. "There is something about the look that appeals to people."