[Truncated abstract] Eating disorders affect a significant proportion of adolescent and young adult women and a smaller proportion of children, men, and older individuals. They are associated with a range of physical, psychological, and social consequences that can have a profound and lasting impact on affected individuals. Eating disorder symptoms (e.g., marked weight and shape concern, strict dieting, binge eating, purging) are also associated with physiological and psychosocial morbidity, and are reported by up to half of adolescent girls and one-third of adolescent boys. If eating disorders are to be effectively prevented or treated, it is imperative that risk and maintaining factors for the conditions are identified. ... This thesis aimed to identify the variables and models that may best account for the development and maintenance of eating disorder symptoms, through two broad studies and six sub-studies. Study 1 focused on identifying predictors of cognitive (i.e., elevated weight and shape concern) and behavioural (i.e., binge eating) eating disorder symptoms in pre- to early-adolescent children followed over time. Prospective tests of the dual-pathway (Stice, 2001) and cognitive-behavioural (Fairburn, 2002; Fairburn, Cooper, & Shafran, 2003) models of eating pathology were also conducted, and a distinction was made between weight and shape concern and weight and shape over-evaluation. Low selfesteem, perceived media pressure to be thin, weight and shape over-evaluation, and maternal concern about child weight prospectively predicted increases in child weight and shape concern over time (Studies 1b and 1c), and weight and shape concern was the most robust predictor of increases in dietary restraint (Studies 1b and 1d). Dietary restraint and affect-related eating prospectively predicted binge eating onset (Studies 1a and 1d), and the dual-pathway and cognitive-behavioural models were both able to account for the development of binge eating over a two year period (Study 1d). Evidence was also provided for the relative superiority of the most recent, enhanced cognitivebehavioural model (Fairburn et al., 2003) over other available theoretical accounts. Study 2 focused more specifically on the role of mood intolerance in predicting and maintaining eating pathology in adults. In Study 2a, a new measure of mood intolerance was developed, revised, and evaluated. In Study 2b, the role of mood intolerance in cross-sectionally predicting binge eating and purging was examined within the framework of the enhanced cognitive-behavioural model. The importance of mood intolerance in accounting for eating disorder symptoms was confirmed, and additional support for the cognitive-behavioural model was provided. Collectively, the six empirical studies have provided new data regarding the relative importance of different variables in the development and maintenance of different eating disorder symptoms. They also provide initial insight into the relative validity of alternate theoretical models in this area. The results suggest that the most recent, enhanced cognitive-behavioural model may provide the best account of how eating disorder symptoms develop and are maintained, providing that the mood intolerance component of the model is specified.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Div. with Concentration : Christian Ministries)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).

Thesis (D.Psych.)--University of Melbourne, Dept. of Psychology, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-146).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology and Social Inquiry, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [287]-309).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-62). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1985. / Typescript (photocopy). eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-74).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 219 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-184).

Thesis (M.Div. with Concentration : Christian Ministries)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-79).

Classificationo f individualsa s high and low restrainede aters, accordingt o their relative score on one of the several restraint assessment questionnaires currently in use, has been shown to predicta n anomalouse ating pattern,r eferredt o as counter-regulationo r disinhibition which, appears to be cognitively controlled. Two main sources of cognitive bias which may characterize dietary restraint In female college students have been investigated in this thesis; attentional and memory biases for foodrelated Information. Experiments I-VI assessed selective attention for food-related words. Median split of subjects on scores from a restraint assessment scale yielded contradictory results. When Middle scorers on the restraint assessment scale were excluded from the analyses, It became clear that aftentional biases for food information do not characterize dietary restraint In female college students. Experiment VI replicated this finding In an adolescent population of school girls. However in Experiment III, after consumption of a sweet drink (either high or low calorie), significant Interference effects in colour-narrdng sweet food words emerged for both the high and low restraint groups. The second series of studies examined memory biases for names of foods which are generally considered to be lorbidden' to dieters but which they may still crave. Heightened recall of 'forbidden'f ood words by the high restrainersw as Indicatedi n both ExperimentsV and VI. The dependence of this memory bias upon the subjects knowing that the experiment is concerned With food and eating style was examined in Experiment Vill and the differential effect emerged in both unprimed and primed recall sessions. it was not found In Experiment VII In which subjectsw ere na7ve.T he final study examinedt he effect of self- versus other- referencing during encoding on recall of 'forbidden'and 'healthy'food names by high and low restralners. The experimentsa re discussedi n terms of schematicp rocessingo f emotionally-relevant Information with reference to Beck's Schema Theory of negative affect (1976, Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. Int. Uni. Press: NY) and Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews's model of biased Information processing in emotional disorders (1988, Cognitive Psychology and Ernotional Disorders. Wiley: Chichester). It Is concluded that dietary restraint may be characterized by a memory bias for food names which dieters attempt to avoid. These biases, although statistically significant, were not substantial. it is suggested that future research takes into account the possibility that distinct categories exist within high restraint groups.