The Big Five Personality Traits related Risks and Protective Factors for Eating Disorders: Insights from University Non-Athletes Students and Varsity Elite Athletes of Track and Field

Abstract

The BFPTs and ED are generally thoughtful vital psychological components inspiring students athletes achievements and well-being. Although, previous study has not sufficiently conducted the BFPTs related risk and protective factor for ED among university students, especially athletic-base differences, providing an important research gap. Consequently, the study objective was to find the BFPTs related risk and protective factor for ED among university elite athletes of athletic and non-athletes varsity students. The study sample was consisted of 203 university students, adding 105 varsity elite athletes of track and field (M = 21.88 with SD = 1.609) and 98 non-athletes (M = 21.57 with SD =1.593). The cross-sectional study used a self-reported questionnaire consisting on three section, demographic section, the BFI-10 to evaluate the personality traits, and the EDE-Qs to assess the eating disorder. Hierarchical regression revealed that the openness, extraversion and conscientiousness combinedly described a moderate degree of variance in ED among varsity elite athletes and non-athletes. Adding openness showed significantly risk factor with eating disorder among elite athletes of athletic. Additionally, extraversion showed protective factor with eating disorder and conscientiousness showed risk factor with ED among non-athletes university students. The results indicate that personality traits are linked to eating disorders differently in elite athletes compared to non-athletes that depends a lot on a person's environment and social factors, like the pressures of sports or university life. This suggested that understanding and tackling eating issues might require approaches that were customized for each group.