Abstract. The article presents the results of a study whose aim was to assess the prevalence of maladaptive eating behavior (MEB) among students of a sports university. Materials and methods: a survey was conducted among 768 students of the Volga region GUFKSiT using the "Eating Behavior Assessment Scale" (EBAS).
Results. It has been established that only 41.11.78% of students of a sports university have no signs of MEB. The presence of deviations according to the subscales of the EBAS was revealed in 72.94.54% of wrestlers, 55.03.2% of sports games athletes, 57.84.59% of complex coordination sports athletes and 55.84, 23% athletes of cyclic sports and 59.43.71% of non-athletes.
Conclusions. The use of EBAS made it possible to identify not only the clinical signs of MEB in students of a sports university, but also the psychological characteristics and behavioral stereotypes characteristic of people with MEB. Complex coordination sports athletes and wrestlers - a group of special risk for the development of MEB. Among athletes of team sports, as well as boys and girls of non-athletes, clinical symptoms of MEB are less common, but psychological characteristics and behavioral stereotypes typical of people with MEB are more often detected, which can be considered as a high predisposition to the development of MEB. EBAS can be used as a screening method for determining MEB at the prenosological stage, to identify groups of students at particular risk and develop targeted preventive measures, taking into account gender characteristics and the specifics of students' sports activities.