Perceived parental psychological control and exercise dependence symptoms in competitive athletes

The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of parental psychological control on exercise dependence symptoms in young competitive athletes by gender. Participants were 262 athletes (M age = 20.93, SD = 1.90, 51% male athletes) who completed self-report questionnaires assessing socio-demographic characteristics, parental psychological control, exercise dependence symptoms, and exercise frequency. Consistent with our hypotheses, significant positive associations were found between parental psychological control and severity of exercise dependence symptoms for the male athletes. We also found that 18.3% of athletes were at- risk for exercise dependence symptoms. Our findings reveal that athletes may be more at-risk for exercise dependence symptoms than nonathletes and that further research examining parents’ role in the development of exercise dependence may aid in understanding the risk factors for exercise dependence in competitive athletes.