Do female dieters have an "eating disorder" self-schema?

A factor that can yield to eating attitude disorders in university students: Self-esteem

OBJECTIVE

To determine prevalence of eating attitude disorder (EAD) and the effect of self-esteem on EAD in female university students.

Study Design: In this cross-sectional study, female university students were included. The dependent variable was EAD determined by Eating Attitude Test-40. Socio-demographic characteristics, body perception, obesity, self-compassion and self-esteem were independent variables. Logistic regression (LR) models have been established to determine the associated factors of EAD. p < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: EAD were found in 3.3% (n = 20) of the participants (n = 600). 44.5% had low and medium self-esteem and %13.4 were overweight (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25.0). According to LR models, after adjusted for age, increased self-esteem score (decreased self-esteem) (OR:1.8, 95%CI:1.063-3.303) and practicing popular diet (OR:12.6, 95%CI:4.439-35.904) increased the risk of EAD significantly.

Conclusion: EAD were less than expected in this group of university students. Self-esteem is an important factor affecting EAD. Students with EAD may be recommended to get psychological support as well as nutritional counseling.

The KOALA-study: study protocol for a comprehensive study of cognitive biases in adolescent anorexia nervosa patients compared to healthy and clinical controls

BACKGROUND

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is characterized by dysfunctional cognitions including cognitive biases at various levels of information processing. However, less is known about the specificity of these biases, i.e., if they occur for eating-disorder-related information alone or also for non-eating-disorder-related emotional information in AN patients (content-specificity) and if they are unique to individuals with AN or are also shown by individuals with other mental disorders (disorder-specificity).

METHODS

The present study systematically assesses cognitive biases in 12-18-year-old female adolescents with AN on three levels of information processing (attention, interpretation, and memory) and with regard to two types of information content (eating-disorder-related, i.e., stimuli related to body weight and shape, and non-eating-disorder-related). To address not only content- but also disorder-specificity, adolescents with AN will be compared not only to a healthy control group but also to a clinical control group (adolescents with major depression or particular anxiety disorders). Cognitive biases are assessed within a single experimental paradigm based on the Scrambled Sentences Task. During the task eye movements are recorded in order to assess attention biases while interpretation biases are derived from the behavioural outcome. An incidental free recall test afterwards assesses memory biases. We expect adolescents with AN to show more pronounced negative cognitive biases on all three levels of information processing and for both types of content compared to healthy adolescents. In addition, we expect the specificity of biases to translate into differential results for the two types of content: AN patients are expected to show stronger biases for disorder-related stimuli but similar or less pronounced biases for non-disorder-related stimuli compared to the clinical control group.

DISCUSSION

This is the first study to comprehensively assess cognitive biases in adolescents with AN. It will have essential implications not only for cognitive-behavioural models of AN but also for subsequent studies aiming to modify cognitive biases in this population, thereby addressing important maintaining factors already at an early stage of the disorder.

The inter-relationship between diet, selflessness, and disordered eating in Australian women

Personality traits and diet can be used to predict if a person is predisposed to disordered eating. Results of this study demonstrate a strong significant relationship between the personality trait of selflessness, diet group, and disordered eating. Vegans were most likely to display selflessness tendencies associated with disordered eating; however when selflessness was controlled for, vegans displayed substantially less disordered eating pathology than non-vegetarians.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the relationship between diet group (non-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, true-vegetarian, and vegan) and disordered eating while investigating to what extent personality trait of selflessness mediates the relationship between diet group and disordered eating.

METHOD

Cross-sectional data from 634 Australian nonclinical women who completed a series of online questionnaires including measures of diet group, disordered eating, and selflessness were used to examine associations between diet, personality (selflessness), and disordered eating.

RESULTS

Selflessness was found to be a significant positive predictor of disordered eating. Results confirm that selflessness played a suppressing role in the relationship between the vegan diet group and disordered eating, when compared to non-vegetarians. Surprisingly, vegans displayed significantly less disordered eating than non-vegetarians and semi-vegetarians.

DISCUSSION

Results of the current study imply that the role of selflessness on disordered eating, when broken down across diet group, may be more complex than first thought. If replicated, these results suggest that targeted treatment of selflessness in different diet groups may improve treatment outcomes for disordered eating. Further research should explore why diet groups differ in terms of selflessness and how this impacts disordered eating.