Attitudes toward fitness testing among elite Australian athletes: scale development, moderating variables and associated risk factors

Abstract

Fitness testing is a regular event for most elite athletes, often occurring many times a year throughout an athletic career. Although many athletes find fitness testing a positive experience, poor results can have significant negative consequences for athletes; ranging from a sense of failure to, in more extreme cases, the loss of a scholarship or a place in the squad. There is anecdotal evidence that some athletes find certain fitness tests, such as skinfold measures and assessment of maximal aerobic capacity, stressful and in a minority of cases this is proposed to lead to pathogenic behaviours such as disordered eating and/or compulsive exercising, with attendant risks to health and well-being. However, worldwide, there is almost no empirical evidence of the attitudes of athletes towards fitness testing or of links between attitudes and risk of pathogenic behaviours. In 2001, the Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine recommended that routine skinfold assessments be abandoned among female athletes; a decision made in the absence of compelling evidence for or against their use. It is apparent that debate and policy decisions about fitness testing should be informed by relevant data. The aims of the present study were (1) to develop and validate a measure to assess attitudes towards fitness testing, (2) to identify personal and situational variables that moderate such attitudes, and (3) to investigate links between attitudes and risk of pathogenic behaviours among elite athletes.