A Life History Analysis of a Male Athlete with an Eating Disorder

ABSTRACT

An exploratory investigation, employing the life history method, was conducted with a male athlete with an eating disorder. The focus of the life history is Mike (pseudonym), an individual with a strong athletic identity, who developed bulimia amidst aspirations to be an elite sports performer. Interviews were structured around the life course, beginning with early childhood memories and ultimately reaching the present day. His narrative suggests the achievement threats and weight-based performance pressures associated with competitive sport played a role in precipitating the onset of bulimia nervosa. When such performance pressures were removed the eating disorder remained and evolved, suggesting that disordered eating in sport can have deeper roots as opposed to being primarily situational. Recovery coincided with the cessation of sport participation and the opening up of a foreclosed identity.

The authors would like to thank Mark Andersen for his thoughtful commetns on an earlier version of this article.

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Notes on contributors

Anthony Papathomas

Anthony Papathomas, M.Sc., obtained an B.Sc. in Sport and Exercise Science from Liverpool John Moores University (UK) and a Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Loughborough University (UK). His research interests focus on clinical issues in sport and exercise settings

David Lavallee

David Lavallee, Ph.D., is a Reader in Sport and Exercise Psychology in the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Loughborough University, UK. He has published over 100 scholarly publications in academic and professional outlets including the Career Transitions in Sport (2000), Coping and Emotion in Sport (2004), and Sport Psychology: Contemporary Themes (2004). He currently serves as Editor of Sport and Exercise Psychology Review, Associate Editor of The Psychologist, and Digest Editor for the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology.