Difficulties in Emotion Regulation, Alexithymia, and Social Phobia Are Associated With Disordered Eating in Male and Female Undergraduate Athletes

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.Investigations of disordered eating in the athlete population tend to focus on females and the influence of sport level. This leaves unanswered whether, and how, team interdependence (i.e., whether the competition is engaged with one person or as a team) may differentially impact male athletes. In the present study, we recruited a sample of non-athletes, individual athletes, and team athletes and examined the interaction of gender and teammate interdependence on established psychosocial risk factors for disordered eating, including social phobia, alexithymia, and emotion regulation. Although we identified a significant main effect of gender, there was no main effect of team type, nor was there a significant interaction of gender and team type. Using descriptive discriminant analysis, these variables significantly discriminated between genders. Women were defined by higher scores than men on drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and emotion recognition and men were defined by relatively higher scores on emotion dysregulation and binge eating. When we combined all athletes and compared them with non-athletes, a significant interaction of gender and athlete status emerged such that female athletes, compared to male athletes and women non-athletes, were defined by higher scores on drive for thinness, emotion dysregulation, and binge eating. Conversely, male athletes, compared to female athletes, were defined by greater difficulty identifying feelings and body dissatisfaction. Non-athletes were not well defined by the discriminant function. These results highlight that emotional processes convey risk of eating disorders in men and women, particularly in athletes, and these risk factors are not uniform.5T32MH016434-405K12HD08584

Internalization of Appearance Ideals and Not Religiosity Indirectly Impacts the Relationship Between Acculturation and Disordered Eating Risk in South and Southeastern Asian Women Living in the United States

Objective: Studies that examine disordered eating in samples of Asian individuals living in the United States frequently combine all individuals of Asian descent into a single group, which can obscure important differences between groups and their experiences of acculturation. The goal of the present study was to establish the relation of acculturation, internalization of appearance ideals, and religiosity as predicting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in women of South and Southeast Asian (SSEA) descent. Method: Women of SSEA descent (N = 112) aged 18–51 years (M = 23.10, SD = 6.4) completed a battery of questionnaires that inquire about these variables. A path analysis was conducted with acculturation serving as the independent (exogenous) variable, religiosity and internalization of the thin ideal as mediators, and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating as dependent (endogenous) variables. Results: Direct paths from acculturation to both body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were not significant. Thin ideal internalization completely accounted for the path from acculturation to both endogenous variables; whereas, religiosity did not significantly account for any indirect effect. Discussion: For SSEA women, internalization of appearance ideals is a potentially greater risk factor for disordered eating than acculturation or religiosity. As this was an atemporal mediation analysis, more work needs to be done exploring predictors of internalization in this population and how that may impact the development of disordered eating

Internalization of appearance ideals and not religiosity indirectly impacts the relationship between acculturation and disordered eating risk in South and Southeast Asian women living in the United States

Objective: Studies that examine disordered eating in samples of Asian individuals living in the United States frequently combine all individuals of Asian descent into a single group, which can obscure important differences between groups and their experiences of acculturation. The goal of the present study was to establish the relation of acculturation, internalization of appearance ideals, and religiosity as predicting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in women of South and Southeast Asian (SSEA) descent. Method: Women of SSEA descent ( Results: Direct paths from acculturation to both body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were not significant. Thin ideal internalization completely accounted for the path from acculturation to both endogenous variables; whereas, religiosity did not significantly account for any indirect effect. Discussion: For SSEA women, internalization of appearance ideals is a potentially greater risk factor for disordered eating than acculturation or religiosity. As this was an atemporal mediation analysis, more work needs to be done exploring predictors of internalization in this population and how that may impact the development of disordered eating

Internalization of Appearance Ideals and Not Religiosity Indirectly Impacts the Relationship Between Acculturation and Disordered Eating Risk in South and Southeast Asian Women Living in the United States

Objective: Studies that examine disordered eating in samples of Asian individuals living in the United States frequently combine all individuals of Asian descent into a single group, which can obscure important differences between groups and their experiences of acculturation. The goal of the present study was to establish the relation of acculturation, internalization of appearance ideals, and religiosity as predicting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in women of South and Southeast Asian (SSEA) descent. Method: Women of SSEA descent (N = 112) aged 18–51 years (M = 23.10, SD = 6.4) completed a battery of questionnaires that inquire about these variables. A path analysis was conducted with acculturation serving as the independent (exogenous) variable, religiosity and internalization of the thin ideal as mediators, and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating as dependent (endogenous) variables. Results: Direct paths from acculturation to both body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were not significant. Thin ideal internalization completely accounted for the path from acculturation to both endogenous variables; whereas, religiosity did not significantly account for any indirect effect. Discussion: For SSEA women, internalization of appearance ideals is a potentially greater risk factor for disordered eating than acculturation or religiosity. As this was an atemporal mediation analysis, more work needs to be done exploring predictors of internalization in this population and how that may impact the development of disordered eating

The relationship of sex and sexual orientation to self-esteem, body shape satisfaction, and eating disorder symptomatology

There is increasing interest in understanding what role, if any, sex and sexual orientation play in body dissatisfaction, its correlates to distress, and its relationship to disordered eating. The goals of the present study were to examine: (a) differences in sex and sexual orientation in internalization of societal pressure to modify physical appearance, components of body image dissatisfaction, self-esteem, and eating disorder symptomatology and (b) whether the internalization-eating disorder symptomatology was mediated by the different components of body image dissatisfaction and low self-esteem. The present data support several key trends in the literature: men generally reported less body dissatisfaction, internalization of socio-cultural standards of beauty, drive for thinness, and disordered eating, but a greater drive for muscularity than women; results also indicated that different components of body image dissatisfaction and low self-esteem partially mediated the relationship between internalization and eating disorder symptomatology. Gay men reported significantly more body dissatisfaction, internalization, eating disorder symptomatology, drive for thinness, and drive for muscularity than heterosexual men. Compared to heterosexual women, lesbians reported increased drive for muscularity, lower self-esteem, and lower internalization; however, they did not significantly differ on body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness or disordered eating. Correlation coefficients between body shape dissatisfaction and several aspects of mental distress were significantly larger for gay men than heterosexual men; the same coefficients did not differ between lesbian women and heterosexual women. Results of path analyses indicated that the relationship between internalization and disordered eating differs for gay and heterosexual men but not for lesbian and heterosexual women. These results call attention to lesbians as a generally understudied population

Not so terrifying after all? A set of failed replications of the mortality salience effects of Terror Management Theory

Terror Management Theory (TMT) postulates that humans, in response to awareness of their death, developed complex defenses to remove the salience of those thoughts. In a typical paradigm, an individual is presented with either a death-related prime (Mortality Salience; MS) or a control prime, such as writhing the details of their own death, whereas others describe something neutral such as watching television. After a distractor task, participants then complete the dependent variable, rating how much they like or agree with a pro- or anti-national essay. Individuals in the MS condition typically rates the pro-national essay higher and the anti-national essay lower than the control condition. We completed five separate studies across five unique samples with the goal of replicating and extending this well-established finding related to TMT and providing further understanding of the phenomena that underlie the effects of the MS. However, across these studies, we were unable to replicate basic patterns of the dependent variable in the MS conditions despite faithfully using standard procedures. Further, pooling these data into a brief meta-analysis found no support for the MS condition having impacted the dependent variable in the expected direction. We discuss the theoretical implications of these (unintended) failures to replicate and possible methodological refining that should be pursued in future studies

The importance of improving cognitive flexibility in adolescents with anorexia nervosa: The case for Cognitive Remediation Therapy

Objective: Inefficiencies in executive functioning (EF), more specifically cognitive flexibility and an overly detailed processing style are frequently observed in adult individuals with Anorexia Nervosa (AN); however, they are not regularly observed in youth with AN. Executive functioning is still developing during adolescence, when AN typically onsets. We highlight the importance of cognitive flexibility and the role that it can play in illness maintenance and treatment. Cognitive remediation therapy (CRT) has been suggested as an adjunctive treatment approach that targets EF; yet CRT is often criticized for its perceived ineffectiveness in promoting weight restoration or directly reducing eating disorder symptoms. Method: The current article broadly reviews findings on executive functioning inefficiencies in individuals with AN. Next, we discuss the purpose and role of CRT in the treatment of AN. We highlight key critiques of the use of CRT and pose questions for future research. Results: CRT has been shown to improve targeted EF skills for various psychiatric disorders. In adolescents with AN, we may need to refocus our conceptual framework for using CRT as an adjunctive treatment. Instead of focusing on ameliorating eating disorder symptoms and directly improving weight gain, CRT may have an indirect impact on remission by influencing maintenance factors and improving global functioning. Discussion: More research needs to be done to understand the role of EF in AN and the role of CRT in treating AN and other eating disorders