Psychometric properties and concurrent validity of two exercise addiction measures: A population wide study

Mónok, Kata and Berczik, Krisztina and Urbán, Róbert and Szabó, Attila and Griffiths, Mark D. and Farkas, Judit and Magi, Anna and Eisinger, Andrea and Kurimay, Tamás and Kökönyei, Gyöngyi and Kun, Bernadette and Paksi, Borbála and Demetrovics, Zsolt (2012) Psychometric properties and concurrent validity of two exercise addiction measures: A population wide study. Psychology of Sport & Exercise, 13. pp. 739-746. ISSN 1469-0292

Text Monok_etal_2012_PSE_exercise.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (366kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Objectives: The existence of exercise addiction has been examined in numerous studies. However, none of the measures developed for exercise addiction assessment have been validated on representative samples. Furthermore, estimates of exercise addiction prevalence in the general population are not available. The objective of the present study was to validate the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI; Terry, Szabo, & Griffiths, 2004), and the Exercise Dependence Scale (EDS; Hausenblas & Downs, 2002b), and to estimate the prevalence of exercise addiction in general population. Design: Exercise addiction was assessed within the framework of the National Survey on Addiction Problems in Hungary (NSAPH), a national representative study for the population aged 18e64 years (N ¼ 2710). Method: 474 people in the sample (57% males; mean age 33.2 years) who reported to exercise at least once a week were asked to complete the two questionnaires (EAI, EDS). Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated good fit both in the case of EAI (CFI ¼ 0.971; TLI ¼ 0.952; RMSEA ¼ 0.052) and EDS (CFI ¼ 0.938; TLI ¼ 0.922; RMSEA ¼ 0.049); and confirmed the factor structure of the two scales. The correlation between the two measures was high (r ¼ 0.79). Results showed that 6.2% (EDS) and 10.1% (EAI) of the population were characterized as nondependentsymptomatic exercisers, while the proportion of the at-risk exercisers were 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively. Conclusions: Both EAI and EDS proved to be a reliable assessment tool for exercise addiction, a phenomenon that is present in the 0.3e0.5% of the adult general population.

Actions (login required)

Edit Item