Development and validation of the intuitive exercise scale.
Up to 80% of individuals with eating disorders engage in dysfunctional exercise, which is characterized by exercising in excessive quantities often past the point of pain as well as compulsive feelings and negative affect when exercise is disrupted (Cook, Hausenblas, Crosby, Cao, & Wonderlich, 2015). Intuitive exercise involves an awareness of the senses while moving and attending to one's bodily cues for when to start and stop exercise, rather than feeling compelled to adhere to a rigid program (Reel, 2015). The purpose of this study was to design a measurement tool to evaluate the construct of intuitive exercise in research, treatment, and prevention settings. The 14-item Intuitive Exercise Scale (IEXS) was developed and validated in the current study with completed surveys from 518 female and male adult participants. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify four latent constructs, including emotional exercise, exercise rigidity, body trust, and mindful exercise, which were supported via confirmatory factor analysis (CFI=0.96; SRMR=0.06). The IEXS demonstrated configural, metric, and scalar invariance across women and men. Correlations with measures of intuitive eating, exercise dependence, and exercise motivation supported convergent and discriminant validity.
['Reel|Justine J|JJ|', 'Galli|Nick|N|', 'Miyairi|Maya|M|', 'Voelker|Dana|D|', 'Greenleaf|Christy|C|']
D000328:Adult D001364:Awareness D003463:Cues D004435:Eating D004644:Emotions D015444:Exercise D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D064866:Mindfulness D009042:Motivation
Mindfulness Exercise dependence Mindful eating Physical activity