Body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders are more prevalent in today’s society than ever, making the prevention of eating disorders and its symptoms crucial for women’s health. A couple-based eating disorder prevention program was developed based on the dual pathway model of eating disorders and some efficacy has been established. The current study explored the program’s mechanisms of change by testing mediators (thin ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction) expected to mediate the effects of the program on three outcome variables (dieting, negative affect, and bulimic symptoms). Although none of the mediated paths were significant, results of the study were overall consistent with previous research and provided further support for the efficacy of the prevention program. In addition to these variables, effects of the prevention on relationship variables (relationship satisfaction, attachment anxiety and avoidance, and commitment) were explored. Finally, relationship intimacy, measured by an event-contingent interaction, was found to have an effect on an important eating disorder risk factor. Implications of the present study and future directions for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders are discussed.

For years, eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, have been studied extensively among adolescent girls and young women. However, despite recent research revealing a significant percentage of men display behaviours related to eating disorders, their individual experiences remain relatively unstudied. Additionally, given the reality that many males usually conceal or deny having the disorder, few studies yielding in-depth accounts of their lived experiences have also not been completed. This study, however, examined, through narrative inquiry, the experiences of two young adult males who were medically diagnosed with and treated, or were presently being treated, for disordered eating. Though each was not impervious to societal and familial pressures to look and be perfect, such pressures, tragically, were exacerbated by the pronounced fear, and actual experience, of being stigmatized by helping professionals. These findings provide a preliminary understanding of the threat that disordered eating poses for males, irrespective of background and lifestyle. Aside from having implications for theory, these findings are also expected to contribute in ways that will help to inform the practices of counsellors and therapists in the field of psychology.

I used reliability generalization procedures to determine the mean score reliability of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), and the Bulimia Test (BULIT). Reliability generalization is a type of meta-analysis used to examine the mean score reliability of a measure across studies and to explore study factors that influence mean score reliability. Score reliability estimates were included in 28.67% of 293 studies using the EDI, 36.28% of 215 studies using the EAT, and 41.46% of 41 studies utilizing the BULIT. For the EDI, mean Cronbach’s alphas for the subscales ranged from .52 to .89 and the mean estimate for the total score was .91. For the EAT-40 and EAT-26, mean estimates of internal consistency were .81 and .86 respectively. Mean estimates of internal consistency for the EAT-26 subscales ranged from .56 to .80. The mean estimate of internal consistency for the BULIT-R was .93. Overall, the mean reliability of scores on all three measures and their subscales/factors was acceptable except for the Asceticism subscale of the EDI and the Oral Control factor on the EAT-26, which had mean internal consistency estimates of .52 and .56 respectively. For the EDI, the majority of the subscales that measure specific eating disorder attitudes and behaviors, such as Bulimia and Perfectionism displayed higher score reliability in clinical eating disorder samples than in nonclinical samples. This difference was not found in the Drive for Thinness and Body Dissatisfaction subscales, perhaps because these attitudes are common in both eating disorder and nonclinical samples. Score reliability information for the EAT and BULIT was primarily reported for nonclinical samples; therefore, it is difficult to characterize the effect of type of sample on these measures. There was a tendency for mean score reliability for all the measures to be higher in the adult samples than in adolescent samples and in the female samples compared to the male samples. This study highlights the importance of assessing and reporting internal consistency every time a measure is used because reliability is affected by characteristics of the participants being examined.

Although recent data suggest the existence of anti-fat attitudes, fear of fatness, and maladaptive eating attitudes among Indian women, few researchers have examined the cross-cultural validity of their instruments before assessing Indian samples. The present study assessed the measurement equivalence of three related measures, the Anti-Fat Attitudes Scale, the Goldfarb Fear of Fat Scale, and the Eating Attitudes Test-26, and tested the invariance of latent means among Indian (n = 226) and Euro-American (n = 211) female college students. Multi-group confirmatory factor analyses using maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors demonstrated reasonable measurement equivalence of the instruments across Indian and Euro-American groups. Confidence interval comparisons of latent means suggested that the Indians and Euro-Americans did not differ significantly in levels of fear of fatness or eating attitudes, but there were some group differences in anti-fat attitudes. Structural equation modeling suggested that fear of fatness and anti-fat attitudes predict about 66% of the variance in Indian eating attitudes; however, these results must be interpreted cautiously due to a poorly fitting measurement model. Results of multiple regression analyses suggested that the eating attitudes of the Indian respondents were not significantly predicted by theirsocioeconomic status or degree of Westernization. In conclusion, these data suggest that there are some similarities, but also some important differences, in the eating-related attitudes and behaviors of Euro-American and Indian women.

The moderating effects of ethnicity and acculturation on three relationships: media exposure and awareness of sociocultural appearance norms, awareness of social ideals and thin-ideal internalization, and thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction were examined. European American students and African American participants from both predominantly White and historically Black colleges and universities completed measures of media exposure, awareness of socicultural attitudes towards appearance, internalization of appearance norms, body dissatisfaction, and acculturation. The LISREL 8.5 program was used to perform structural modeling analysis using the Satorra-Bentler scaled chi-square and associated robust standard errors to test the relationship between ethnic groups. The results support previous findings regarding the mediational effect of internalization on the relationship between awareness and body dissatisfaction, and also provided evidence for the relationship between media exposure and awareness of sociocultural norms. The relationship between media exposure and awareness, and awareness and internalization were similar for both groups, while relationship between internalization and body dissatisfaction was stronger for European American women than for African American women. These results indicate ethnicity may serve to protect some women against the development of eating disorder symptoms, as well as the role of acculturation as a moderator between media exposure and awareness and between internalization and body dissatisfaction in African American women.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 130 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Thomas E. Joiner, Jr., Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 17, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 1998. Graduate Programme in Kinesiology and Health Science. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-72). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ27338.

Thesis--PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references.