Explored relationships among feminist identity, gender traits, and disturbed eating symptoms in 71 college women. Identification with feminist values was negatively correlated with body dissatisfaction, bulimic symptoms, and feelings of ineffectiveness. Results suggest that factors promoting body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating may have less…

Examined the role of female undergraduates' perceived reciprocity in parental relationships, their sense of incompetence, and their identity style and commitment in predicting disordered eating symptoms. Found that disordered eating was related to a sense of incompetence, avoidant identity style, and lack of identity commitments. A lack of a…

Used three studies to examine a diagnostic questionnaire's psychometric properties. Results strongly supported the psychometric properties of the tool. Convergent validity and criterion validity were both supported by meaningful correspondences, and incremental validity was also supported in that the tool yielded more accurate diagnoses when…

Examined the school performance, suicidal involvement, disordered eating behaviors, pregnancy risk, and chemical use of female teenagers with a history of sexual abuse. Found that they reported higher rates of adverse outcomes than did teenagers without a background of abuse. Lists protective factors and risk factors that influenced outcomes. (RJM)

Female undergraduates (n=100) were surveyed concerning body percept and past experience with sexual abuse. Body size overestimation was greater in noneating-disordered women who had relatively unhealthy eating attitudes. Overall findings suggested that age at time of abuse and body image are only associated where there is a degree of eating…

Adolescents and individuals participating in activities that emphasize body shape and control have been identified as risk groups for eating disorders. A study sought to determine whether certain groups of adolescent females are more vulnerable to disordered eating patterns or usage of pathogenic weight control techniques. Involvement in organized…

Examined the relationship of personality and physical variables to bulimic symptoms. Hierarchical regression analysis of a sample of Mexican American female students revealed that body mass and endorsement of United States societal values concerning attractiveness were related positively to bulimic symptomatology; age, body satisfaction, and…

Fifteen women with long-standing histories of eating disorders and other disordered behavior participated in a psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy group over a three-year period. Provides several observations on the group and describes how a variety of variables combined to help, as well as, hinder favorable outcomes in group members.…

Explores how the family mediates cultural ideas about thinness, and considers how these messages are conveyed to family members. Discusses open-ended interviews with 32 White, middle-class women on the topic of body image and eating problems. Determined that a critical family environment, coercive parental control, and a dominating discourse on…

Seventy-three caregivers of persons with Angelman syndrome completed the Aberrant Behavior checklist and Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behavior. Responses indicate that 15q- Angelman syndrome is associated with problems such as lack of speech, over activity, restlessness, and eating and sleeping problems. Inappropriate laughter was only reported…

A study conducted functional analyses of the pica of three young children. The pica of one participant was maintained by automatic reinforcement; that of the other two was multiply-controlled by social and automatic reinforcement. Preference and treatment analyses were used to address the automatic function of the pica. (Author/CR)

Examined the college adjustment demands and developmental tasks unique to college women with eating disorders. Their issues included problematic perfectionism associated with academic and personal adjustment; managing the health consequences, dysfunctional behavior, and stress of eating problems; and social support needs. They also tended to share…

Background: Apart from a pervasive eating disorder, the Prader-Willi (PWS) syndrome is characterized by a distinct behavioural profile comprising maladaptive behaviours, obsessive-compulsive traits and skin picking, all included in the PWS behavioural phenotype. In this study, we present a further delineation of this characteristic behavioural…

Although body dissatisfaction is a strong predictor of disordered eating among women, a majority of women report substantial body dissatisfaction but do not concomitantly report severe levels of eating disorder symptomatology. Third variables, then, may interact with body dissatisfaction to influence its relation to eating disorder symptomatology.…

This study assessed the association between spirituality and psychopathology in a group of sexual abuse victims and controls with a focus on whether spirituality moderated the association between sexual trauma and psychopathology. Seventy-one sexual trauma victims were compared to 25 control subjects on spiritual well-being, the Eating Disorder…