An adaptation of the Stroop Test (using colored words related to sexual abuse) impaired color-naming in eating-disordered women (n=50) and in comparison women reporting sexual abuse. The interference effect was related to abuse characteristics, degree of bulimic psychopathology, and frequency of binging. A two-stage model of cognitive reaction to…

Young women (n=102) with bulimia nervosa were compared with 204 control subjects without an eating disorder and with 102 subjects with other psychiatric disorders. Results suggest that sexual and physical abuse are both risk factors for psychiatric disorders in general, including bulimia nervosa, but are not specific risk factors for bulimia. (DB)

This study examined the relationships among childhood sexual and physical abuse, body image disturbance, and eating disorder symptomatology in college students, of whom 29 had been sexually abused, 32 physically abused, and 29 nonabused. There was no evidence that child sexual or physical abuse was associated with the development of body image…