Drive for Muscularity, Disordered Eating Behaviors, and Social Physique Anxiety in Individuals Engaged in Fitness

Nowadays, the idealization of muscular appearance causes differences in individuals' body perception and eating behaviors and increases social pressures.The objective of this study was to examine the relationships and mutual effects between the drive to be muscular, eating behaviour disorders and social physique anxiety levels in individuals engaged in fitness activities. The study included 304 participants with an average age of 23.33 ± 5.50 years who had been engaged in regular fitness activities for a minimum of one year. The participants were requested to complete the Muscularity-Oriented Eating Scale (MOES), the ORTO-15 test, the Drive for Muscularity Scale (DMS), and the Social Physique Anxiety Inventory (SPAI). The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, skewness and kurtosis values, Pearson correlation analysis, and Multiple linear regression analysis. The study findings revealed a statistically significant positive and moderate correlation between the participants' MOES, DMS and SPAI scores (p<0.05). No relationship was identified between the ORTO-15 test score and the scores of the other scales (p>0.05). It was established that the desire for muscularity and muscularity-oriented eating were robust predictors of one another, and that social physique anxiety also exhibited a predictive relationship with these two variables. This suggests that the drive for muscularity, eating habits, and concerns about physical appearance among those participating in fitness activities influenced each other. Conversely, the absence of a notable correlation between the ORTO-15 test and the other scales suggests that orthorectic tendencies are not directly associated with the variables examined in this study.