Testing the Acceptance Model of Intuitive Eating With College Women Athletes

Intuitive eating is an adaptive eating style that involves eating for physical rather than emotional reasons, reliance on internal hunger and satiety cues, and lack of restriction in eating. In our study, the authors tested the acceptance model of intuitive eating with 160 college women athletes from Division I and Division II schools, using path analysis and controlling for body mass index. Similar to a previous study with general college women, the model provided an excellent fit to the data. These results support the hypothesis that perceived acceptance from others indirectly contributes to intuitive eating through college women athletes’ attitudes toward their bodies. For college women athletes, body acceptance by coaches, trainers, and teammates predicted athletes’ own body appreciation, which in turn, predicted their eating style. These findings suggest ways for coaches and counselors to help women athletes enhance their body appreciation and improve their eating. These results also indicate the need for researchers to further explore women athletes’ eating styles and attitudes toward their bodies.