Athlete Attachment Style With Coaches as a Predictor of Athlete Disordered Eating and Body Image Anxiety

The coach-athlete relationship has been established as an important and significant relationship within athletes’ lives (Davis & Jowett, 2010; Jowett, 2008). There is also literature that demonstrates the impact of the sport culture environment and the quality of the coach-athlete relationship on disordered eating and body image anxiety in athletes (Galli et al., 2011; Petrie & Greenleaf, 2012; Reel et al., 2010; Shanmugam et al., 2013). However, much of the current literature does not examine this significant coach-athlete relationship from an attachment framework. Current literature supports the significance of the coach-athlete relationship and more recent research supports viewing coaches as significant attachment figures in athletes’ lives (Davis & Jowett, 2010; Shanmugam et al., 2014). Using an attachment theory framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between athlete attachment style with coach and disordered eating and body image anxiety. Current male and female NCAA athletes completed the Coach-Athlete Attachment Scale to measure attachment style with coach (Davis & Jowett, 2013). Participants also completed the Eating Attitudes Test-26 and Physical Appearance State and Trait Anxiety Scale to measure disordered eating and body image anxiety, respectively (Garner et al., 1983; Reed et al., 1991). Findings from this study indicate that athletes who report secure attachment styles with their coaches report less disordered eating and body image anxiety than athletes who report insecure attachment styles with their coaches