2.2 CRECIMIENTO Y DESARROLLO
2.2.4 MEDIDAS ANTROPOMÉTRICAS DEL CRECIMIENTO Y
Specialist schools
Recruitment issues
This investigation has produced some very interesting results with regard to the
emotional well-being o f individuals attending specialist schools for the performing arts.
However, as mentioned before recruitment to this study was poor and therefore this
work needs to be replicated including a greater number of performing arts school and a
greater number of students from these schools. It is difficult to see how replication will
be possible given the schools' reluctance to participate in this kind o f research. One o f the
aims of this research was to highlight areas that could be o f use to providers of specialist
education as a whole in promoting emotional well-being within their schools. However,
it has now become apparent to the present author that providers o f specialist education
cannot be seen as a unitary group working towards the same ends. The schools are often
in competition with each other for the best and most talented students. Their schools
concerns are, perhaps understandably, for their own students and a collective
responsibility for the training of specialist students is often not to be found. This is
further complicated by the fact that the teachers are often frightened o f any adverse
publicity that research conducted within their schools might bring in o f the effect that this
could have on existing pupils and their parents, and the future intake o f students.
Researchers are also often seen as individuals who don't really understand the nature of
the specialist school environment. Somehow, however, psychologists and other
researchers need to find a way o f persuading providers of specialist education that this
Dancers
As mentioned earlier the only cases of Anorexia Nervosa were found in the dance group. Although as a group the dancers did not endorse a greater number o f symptoms than non
dancers there were some specific areas of concern for the dancers. The finding that a
high percentage o f the dancers were below 90% weight for height, worry about their
weight, feel fat, and have attempted to lose weight in the last six months is worrying.
This finding was specific to the dance group, none of the non dancers below 90% weight
for height experienced these symptoms. The dancers were also more dissatisfied than
their specialist peers as assessed by the "general dissatisfaction" scale o f the SCANS and
had lower self esteem than the musicians and controls in a number of domains. Perhaps
the most worrying was the fact that the dancers had lower physical self esteem than
either the musicians or controls. This is a matter of concern as the dancers are in an
environment which places a high premium on physical appearance.
It is possible that intervention programmes designed specifically for dancers may be of
use. The lessons learned from intervention programmes designed for the general
population are likely to prove useful here. Loosli and Benson (1990) conducted a study
of 92 adolescent ballet dancers. They reported that many o f the dancers were consuming
far fewer calories than was necessary to sustain normal growth and development and had
diets which were high in fat and low in nutritional value. They also reported that
although 60% o f the dancers took a vitamin and mineral supplement only 7% o f these
dancers were taking the proper amounts or taking supplements which were appropriate
to compensate for the deficiency in their diets. Loosli and Benson (1990) also reported
that several dancers were taking excessive amounts of vitamins. The authors argued that
these eating patterns demonstrated inadequate knowledge about appropriate nutritional
practices and that this could be a focus for intervention work with this group.
It might be possible, therefore, to design intervention programmes which provide dancers
issue with one o f the schools, the teachers argued that their students were well informed
about healthy nutrition, in many cases the students took pride in knowing the precise
composition of their food. They also appeared to be well informed about the dangers o f
dieting. However, the teachers also argued that knowing the theory behind healthy
nutrition did not necessarily influence their actual eating behaviour. This has certainly
been the experience o f a number of intervention programmes designed to
modify unhealthy eating attitudes in adolescents. In a review o f intervention programmes
designed to reduce eating disorders, Smolak and Levine (1994) have argued that
individuals who have been part of such an intervention programme often show improved
knowledge about nutrition and weight regulation but that this does not necessarily
change behaviours thought to constitute or predispose one to eating disorders.
It is likely, therefore, that programmes designed to improve nutritional knowledge within
dance populations will either not be needed or will not necessarily change behaviour.
Smolak and Levine (1994) have listed a number of areas that should be covered in any
prevention programme. They have argued that the promotion of "body acceptance" is an
important feature o f any intervention work. Dance teachers have reported that they often
experience problems with dancers within their schools who are o f normal weight or
slightly underweight in terms of the general population but are heavy on the context o f
the schools as a whole. Hamilton et al (1985) have reported that the heavier dancers in
their study (although these dancers were not overweight by general population
standards) had a greater degree o f eating disturbances than the lighter dancers. Although
assessing cause and effect is a difficult issue, it is possible that the heavier dancers had
more eating difficulties as a result o f attempts to reduce their weight in the context o f a
group, many of whom were lighter than themselves. It is likely that such work would be
important for the dancers in the present study given their low physical self esteem scores.
The mother of the dancer presented in the case study in Chapter 1 said that her daughter
had developed eating problems following a comment by one o f the teachers than she was
prevention programme in world class ballet school in Canada. She has highlighted the
importance of including teachers in any prevention interventions. Likewise, Smolak and
Levene (1994) argue that involving parents in an intervention programme is imperative.
In summary, intervention programmes in general and those designed for dancers not only
need to focus on body acceptance within the students themselves but amongst the
significant adults with whom they are in contact.
It is obviously important to point out that simply lecturing children and adolescents about
the danger of dieting and the importance of the acceptance of a wider range o f body
images and shapes is likely to prove to be unsuccessful. It would be naive to assume that
such an approach would have any major impact in the context o f powerful societal
images o f the "perfect body". An eating disorder prevention programme, targeted at
adolescents is currently operation in Oxford. The programme consists o f six 45-minute
sessions in which adolescents are taught strategies adapted from the cognitive-
behavioural model in the treatment of bulimia, such as self monitoring and cognitive re
structuring. The researchers have emphasised the importance of an approach which is
interactive rather than didactic. It is possible that such an approach would also be useful
with the dance populations.
Finally, Smolak and Levine (1994) have suggested that one reason why intervention
programmes in the general population are relatively unsuccessful is that they are often
targeted at adolescents which may be "too late". As mentioned earher research into
eating disorders in dancers has also tended to focus on older individuals. The finding of
one case of Anorexia Nervosa in the younger dancers would certainly confirm the need
to focus attention on younger groups. Smolak and Levine (1994) have suggested that
there is accumulating evidence that even very young children o f elementary school age
report body dissatisfaction and have attempted to lose weight. They have argued that
intervention programmes should start with children at elementary school. The present
author knows o f no exploratory intervention work on the presence o f eating disorders or
dancing peers. It is suggested here that this work would be extremely useful allowing
researchers to plot the course o f eating problems in dancers such that interventions
programmes could be targeted at an appropriate developmental stage.
Male dancers
The results of this investigation showed that a far greater proportion o f the males
dancers fell into the high negative affectivity group in comparison to the male non
dancers (33% vs. 7% respectively). This large differences was not observed between the
female dancers and non dancers. Rowley (1992) has reported that for males participation
in sport was seen to enhance their masculinity whilst females are seen to lose their
femininity and manifest "gender abnormality". However, it appears that male dancers are
not seen by their peers to be "masculine", but quite the reverse. A number of the male
adolescent dancers in this study reported that they were often teased by other male non
dancers for their participation in dance. One dancer reported that his own father had
"accused" him o f being homosexual because of his skill and enjoyment of dance. It is
highly possible that this pressure from peers and in some cases members of their family
experienced by male dancers is associated with the high degree o f negative affect
experienced by this group. The effect of this stereotyping on the emotional well-being of
male dancers is certainly worthy of further investigation.
A number of male dancers from one school reported using cannabis and other illegal
drugs on a regular basis. Alcohol abuse also appeared to be common. Substance abuse
was not systematically assessed in the present research and it is possible that these
behaviours are just as common in non dancers. However, these issues appeared to
feature far less often in either the music or control group or within the interviews with
the female dancers. Ironically, the research on dancers tends to focus on females and
eating disorders. The present work would indicate that more research which is centred
Musicians
The present results showed that the musicians did not have more diagnoses or more
psychopathological symptoms than their non musical peers. Some very interesting
differences between the two specialist groups were also observed. Although, the two
groups were similar in terms of their "perfectionism" scores, the musicians were much
less dissatisfied as assessed by the "general dissatisfaction" scale and far fewer o f the
musicians were classified as "neurotic perfectionists". This group is characterised by low
psychopathology and high self esteem. A number of researchers have argued that there
are two forms of perfectionism. Frost et al (1993) have argued that one type of
perfectionism is a positive striving for success and the second type is described as
maladaptive concern about evaluation. On a similar theme Weeda-Mannak and Drop
(1985) have argued that there may be two forms of achievement motivation, motivation
is to avoid failure (negative fear of failure) and motivation to achieve (positive fear of
failure). These data would indicate that the nature of the perfectionism and perhaps the
nature of the motive to achieve seen in dancers is very different from that observed in
musicians. It would appear, for example, that the musicians have a positive striving for
success (Frost et al 1993) or a positive fear of failure (Weeda-Mannak and Drop 1985)
whilst the dancers have a maladaptive form of perfectionism or a negative fear of failure.
The precise nature of perfectionism or achievement motivation and the origins o f these
differences in dancers and musicians requires further investigation.
Perceived performance expectations and perceived performance
The data from this study would indicate that the schools' concerns about pressures
placed on their students by parents and/or the schools themselves have a minimal
influence on psychopathology. No significant differences in symptomatology between the
high/low expectation group was found. However, low perceived performance in the
specialist subject does appear to be associated with symptomatology and this appears to
expectations investigated in this study. Interestingly the teachers themselves reported
that a number o f their students lose confidence in their specialist abilities on entering a
specialist school. Before coming to the school these students have often been the most
talented within their previous music or dance group. However, in joining a specialist
school they are with individuals who are equally if not more talented.
Quite clearly there is a need to replicate this work on the influence o f perceived
performance and the development of psychopathology in other groups o f dancers and
musicians. There is also a need to refine the questionnaire measure used in the
investigation o f perceived performance expectations and perceived performance. The
questionnaire was designed with the schools to tap into the areas that they felt were
relevant in terms o f perceived expectations and performances. However, it was not
piloted before use and there have been no investigations of the psychometric properties
of this measure.
Summary
In summary there a number of recommendations for future research following this
investigation o f emotional well-being in specialist school children.
l.This research need to be replicated using a greater number o f specialist schools and
greater number o f students from within these schools. Researchers need to be able to
find a way o f persuading providers of specialist education that this type o f research could
be o f use to both their schools and their pupils.
2.Intervention programmes specifically designed for dancers are indicated. It is suggested
that programmes that focus specifically on providing dancers with information about
nutrition and the dangers of deliberate weight reduction may not be necessary and may
not be useful. Researchers should draw upon the lessons learned from eating disorder
3 . The finding o f one case of Anorexia Nervosa in the young adolescent group of dancers
would indicate that this age group needs to be investigated more thoroughly. Research
into eating disorders in the general population has also turned its attention to children. It
is suggested here that a similar focus on child dancers would provide some useful
information about the course and development of eating disorder symptoms in this group
and help to provide a focus for appropriate intervention work with this group.
4. The results o f this study have also indicated that more research is needed into the
experiences of male dancers. This group has largely been neglected.
5.It is suggested here that there are difierences between the dancers and musicians in
terms o f the nature of perfectionism observed in both groups and their motivation to
achieve. It is suggested that perfectionism seen in dancers may be maladaptive and that
the perfectionism seen in musicians is an adaptive striving for success. This issue requires
further investigation.
6.Finally, it is suggested that the finding that individuals with a low perceived
performance have a greater number o f symptoms than those with a high perceived
performance is o f great interest. It cannot be assumed that individuals who have been
accepted for entry into a specialist school on the basis of their talent necessarily have a
high self esteem with regard to their specialist skills. This research which has suggested
that low perceived performance is associated with psychopathology needs to be
investigated fiirther. However, it is suggested here that this information could be o f use
to providers on specialist education in the promotion o f emotional well-being in their