The Role of Perfectionism and Sport Commitment on Exercise Addiction Among Hungarian Athletes

Exercise addiction (EA) is a maladaptive behavior characterized by excessive physical activity, often linked to negative psychological outcomes. This study investigated the relationships between perfectionism, sport commitment, and EA in a sample of 219 Hungarian athletes (M = 22.19 years). Using path analysis, we tested a model hypothesizing that adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism differentially predict enthusiastic and constrained commitment, which in turn influences EA. Our results showed that maladaptive perfectionism positively predicted constrained commitment (β = 0.70) and EA (β = 0.63), while negatively relating to enthusiastic commitment (β = -0.17). Conversely, adaptive perfectionism was positively associated with enthusiastic commitment (β = 0.24) and negatively with constrained commitment (β = -0.12). Moreover, enthusiastic commitment positively predicted EA (β = 0.24). We found a significant indirect effect between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism when controlling for enthusiastic commitment, suggesting its dual role in this context. Our study suggests that enthusiastic commitment serves as a source of exercise addiction (EA) and has a dual role, acting as both a protective factor and a risk factor for it. Additionally, we found that maladaptive perfectionism is associated with higher levels of constrained commitment and EA, while correlating with lower levels of enthusiastic commitment. Conversely, adaptive perfectionism increases enthusiastic commitment and decreases constrained commitment. These findings highlight the associations between motivational and personality factors in EA, indicating that even adaptive traits can contribute to unhealthy exercise patterns in athletic environments.