Perfectionism and eating problems in the career development of female athletes.

Introduction: The reviewed empirical data about female athletes shows that female elite athletes’ career development can be seen as specific in several aspects. Research findings show that female athletes express e.g. lower body satisfaction, lower self-esteem, more disturbed eating behaviors in comparison with male athletes. The purpose of this study was to explore female athletes’ career development in the frame of these issues. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 90 talented and elite Slovene athletes (n = 45 males, 45 females) were used for the purposes of this study. Participants came from various types of sport and equally represented three stages of athletic career development: development stage (n = 30), mastery stage (n = 30), and discontinuation stage (n = 30). The interview guide was based on the Holistic Athletic Career model (Wylleman, Reints, & De Knop, 2013). The interviews lasted between 45 and 75 minutes. They were transcribed verbatim and content analyzed using the qualitative analytic software program (QSR NVivo 10). Results: In comparison with male participants, female participants expressed higher levels of motivation to succeed in both, athletic and academic career, and striving for perfection in both domains. They more often reported being under pressure when trying to fulfil expectations coming from themselves and the others. At the psychological level, they more often expressed dissatisfaction with the physical appearance, more often reported about monitoring weight behaviours and attempts to lose weight in order to look better and/or to perform better. In comparison with male athletes, they more often reported about getting comments for their athletic appearance and, unlike male athletes, some of them perceived those as negative. Conclusion/Application to practice: Results of this study show that female athletes more often face difficulties in their athletic career development connected with their physical self-esteem, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. In addition, they often express strong perfectionism tendencies about their dual career development which can lead them to feelings of lowered sense of well-being and burnout. For the professionals working with female athletes, it is therefore advisable to try to be aware of these issues and gain additional knowledge about how to prevent, identify, and address these problems in order to assure a successful and healthy athletic career development to their female athletes.