Predictors of disordered eating in a sample of elit Division I college athletes Scott G. Engel a, * , Craig Johnson b , Pauline S. Powers c , Ross D.Crosby d , Steve A. Wonderlich d,e , David A.Wittrock a , James E. Mitchell d a Psychology Department, North Dakota State University, Minard Hall, Fargo,ND 58105, USA b Laureate Psychiatric Hospital, Tulsa,OH,USA c University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA d Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Fargo,ND,USA e University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA Abstract Objective: The present study sought to investigate the relationship between a number of area elite student-athletes’ lives and disordered eating. Method: We surveyed 1445 elite Divis at 11 different institutions and in 11 different sports. Hierarchical regression was used to indicate specific areas of the participants’ collegiate experience that may be associated with diso attitudes and symptomatology. Results: Results demonstrate that the variables entered i predicted between 40.5% and 46.4% of the variance for the restriction of food, body dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness. Categories of variables that generally predicted the most variance for each dependent measure were demographics, athletic involvement, and personality. Of the 11 sports included in the analysis, wrestling and gymnastics demonstrated elevated levels of drive food restriction, and purging behavior compared to other athletes. Discussion: Findings s elite athletes gender, ethnicity, sport,and self-esteem are associated with several behaviors and attitudes indicative of disordered eating. D 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Disordered eating; Student-athlete; Athletic involvement 1471-0153/$ – see front matter D 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S1471-0153(03)00031-X * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-701-231-8624. E-mail address: scott.engel@ndsu.nodak.edu (S.G. Engel). Eating Behaviors 4 (2003) 333 – 343