title: Disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in ballet students: examination of environmental and individual risk factors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current study compared the prevalence of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors among adolescent ballet dancers at national, regional, and local schools.
  
  
  METHODS
  Female ballet students (N = 239; mean age = 15.0 +/- 1.5 years) from five geographically disparate summer programs completed the Eating Dis-order Inventory (EDI) and answered questions regarding eating disorder symptoms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students from both national and local schools reported significantly higher EDI total, Drive for Thinness, and Perfectionism scores compared with regional students. In contrast, national students reported significantly greater dieting scores and lifetime histories of self-induced vomiting compared with regional and local students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Eating pathology among adolescent ballet dancers may be a function of both genetic and environmental risk. Dancers who exhibit high levels of perfectionism and, perhaps consequently, place themselves in highly competitive environments, may exhibit a significantly increased risk for disordered eating in comparison to dancers who are less perfectionistic and/or place themselves in less competitive environments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8205, USA. Jennifer.Thomas@Yale.edu
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Pamela K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Keel
authors.forename: Todd F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Heatherton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003615:Dancing / Q000523:psychology*; D004777:Environment; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D013334:Students; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology