Relations among exercise, coping, disordered eating, and psychological health among college students Jennifer Thome * , Dorothy L. Espelage Division of Counseling Psychology, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 226 Education Building, 1310 South Sixth Street Champaign, IL 61820-6990, USA Received 14 February 2004; received in revised form 14 February 2004; accepted 8 April 2004 Abstract Researchers have long been interested in the coping styles of individuals who display disordered eating characteristics. Recently, exercise has been recognized as both a behavior and coping strategy that might be present among individuals with disordered eating. The present study evaluates the role of exercise as both a coping mechanism and as a health behavior in relation to eating pathology and other measures of psychological health in a nonclinical university population. Female (n = 235) and male (n = 86) undergraduate students completed questionnaires that assessed exercise behavior, coping strategies, eating attitudes, self-esteem, life satisfaction, affect, depression, and anxiety. The results indicate that the relations among exercise, coping, and eating pathology is complex. Exercise was related to positive psychological health in males, whereas exercise in females was associated with both positive and negative psychological health. For women with high Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) scores, exercise was significantly associated with negative affect, and a trend existed in this group such that exercise was associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety. Conversely, for women with low EAT scores, exercise was associated with positive affect. This suggests that exercise might be differentially associated with mental health based on the presence or absence of eating pathology. D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Exercise; Coping; Eating; Gender 1. Relations among exercise, coping, eating, and psychological health in subclinical sample While exercise is easily recognized as a health behavior, recent research suggests that it might also be used as a coping mechanism by some individuals to manage stress and promote psychological health 1471-0153/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2004.04.002 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-217-355-3468; fax: +1-217-244-7620. E-mail address: jgerlach@uiuc.edu (J. Thome). Eating Behaviors 5 (2004) 337 – 351