Development and validation of the intuitive exercise scale.
Up to 80% of individuals with eating disorders engage in dysfunctional exercise, which is characterized by exercising in excessive quantities often past the point of pain as well as compulsive feelings and negative affect when exercise is disrupted (Cook, Hausenblas, Crosby, Cao, & Wonderlich, 2015). Intuitive exercise involves an awareness of the senses while moving and attending to one's bodily cues for when to start and stop exercise, rather than feeling compelled to adhere to a rigid program (Reel, 2015). The purpose of this study was to design a measurement tool to evaluate the construct of intuitive exercise in research, treatment, and prevention settings. The 14-item Intuitive Exercise Scale (IEXS) was developed and validated in the current study with completed surveys from 518 female and male adult participants. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify four latent constructs, including emotional exercise, exercise rigidity, body trust, and mindful exercise, which were supported via confirmatory factor analysis (CFI=0.96; SRMR=0.06). The IEXS demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance across women and men. Correlations with measures of intuitive eating, exercise dependence, and exercise motivation supported convergent and discriminant validity.
University of North Carolina Wilmington, United States. Electronic address: reelj@uncw.edu.
Justine J
JJ
Reel
Department of Health Promotion and Education, 1901 E. South Campus Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States. Electronic address: Nick.galli@hsc.utah.edu.
Nick
N
Galli
Department of Health, Physical Education & Recreation, 265 West 1100 South, Brigham City, UT 84302, United States. Electronic address: maya.miyairi@usu.edu.
Maya
M
Miyairi
Department of Sport Sciences, 375 Birch Street, Morgantown, WV 26506-6116, United States. Electronic address: dkvoelker@mail.wvu.edu.
Dana
D
Voelker
University of Wisconsin, PO Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413, United States. Electronic address: cgreenl@uwm.edu.
Christy
C
Greenleaf
D000328:Adult; D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D004435:Eating; D004644:Emotions; D015444:Exercise / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D064866:Mindfulness; D009042:Motivation
Exercise dependence; Mindful eating; Mindfulness; Physical activity