Although researchers have examined eating disorders in female athletes, few such studies have been done with athletes who are retired, and even fewer have been quantitative. Thus, the authors empirically tested an established eating disorder theoretical model with 218 former NCAA Division-I female collegiate athletes who had been retired for 2–6 years. In retirement, participants completed measures of general sociocultural pressures related to body and appearance, thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, negative affect, and bulimic symptomatology. Through structural equation modeling, the authors examined the direct and indirect relationships among the latent variables while controlling for body mass index and years since retirement. The model fit the data well, supporting the hypothesized direct and indirect relationships among the variables and explaining 54% of the variance in bulimic symptomatology. Despite no longer being exposed to sport pressures that contribute to eating disorders, female athletes experience such symptoms long into retirement.

尽管研究人员对女运动员的饮食失调进行了检查，但很少对退役运动员进行此类研究，定量研究就更少了。因此，作者以 218 名退役 2-6 年的前 NCAA 第一级女大学生运动员为对象，对既定的饮食失调理论模型进行了实证检验。退休后，参与者完成了与身体和外表、瘦理想内化、身体不满意、饮食限制、负面情绪和贪食症症状相关的一般社会文化压力的测量。通过结构方程模型，作者检查了潜在变量之间的直接和间接关系，同时控制了体重指数和退休年数。该模型很好地拟合了数据，支持了变量之间假设的直接和间接关系，并解释了暴食症症状中 54% 的方差。尽管不再承受导致饮食失调的运动压力，但女运动员在退役后很长一段时间内都会出现此类症状。