A comparison of whether beginning ballet dancers are as susceptible to eating disorders as are more advanced ballet dancers

This study examines possible eating disorders among female ballet dancers. Its purpose was to determine if beginning ballet dancers were as susceptible to eating disorders as were more advanced ballet dancers. A modified version of the Thompson and Comeau questionnaire (Appendix A) concerning eating habits was given to 63 female ballet dancers at a large, public state university in the south. The sample size was determined by the number of dancers enrolled in the spring of 2001. The data were analyzed using the Windows SPSS package, version 10, resulting in descriptive statistics such as means, frequencies, percentages and cross-tabulations. This study answers the author's research question of whether beginning ballet dancers were as susceptible to eating disorders as were more advanced ballet dancers. The data showed that there was not a significant difference between Ballet I and II or Ballet II and III. However, there was a significant difference between Ballet I and III, which leads the author to state that there is no evidence to show that beginning Ballet I dancers in this study were as susceptible to eating disorders as were the more advanced dancers in Ballet III. The findings of this study provide dance administrators, teachers, choreographers, and dancers with an idea of how each level of dance compares with one another. The results of this study also indicate that there is a lack of recent research available to verify the results of this study..