The present study was designed in an effort to address two general questions: (1) the primacy of social dysfunction in bulimia nervosa, and its potential as a risk factor in disease onset; and (2) the proximal antecedents of the binge eating episode in bulimic patients. Given the substantial clinical and empirical evidence of social impairment in this psychiatric group, as well as findings documenting the treatment effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (a therapeutic program designed to exclusively address social disturbances) with bulimic patients, it has been speculated that difficulty with interpersonal relationships may be a predisposing factor in the development of bulimia. The present study sought to determine whether social problems could present as potential markers for later disturbances of eating in weight-preoccupied women. A comparison of bulimic patients with a group of restrained eaters and a group of unrestrained eaters on such features as social adjustment across domains of functioning, specific deficits in interpersonal transactions, and qualitative aspects of everyday social experiences was undertaken to determine whether deficits in the social sphere parallel the continuum of eating pathology. In support of previous research and consistent with predictions, bulimic subjects were found to display greater social maladjustment and interpersonal deficits, and to report more negative social interaction experiences than control subjects. Few dimensions of social dysfunction were found to differentiate restrained eaters from unrestrained eaters, thereby suggesting that bulimia nervosa and restrained eating are not continuous with regard to social problems. / Studies examining the proximal antecedents of binge eating episodes have suggested that negative affect reliably precedes binge eating, and as such, has been considered a precipitant to bulimic episodes. However, no previous empirical work has addressed the precursors of this negative mood state. The present study postulated an "interpersonal stress" model of the binge/purge episode which incorporates disturbances in social relatedness and negative interpersonal interaction as precipitants of the negative affect that characterizes the pre-binge state. The model was evaluated in a naturalistic investigation of social interaction experiences and eating behavior in a sample of clinical eating disorder patients. The interpersonal distress/negative affect/binging linkages postulated in the present study were supported, thus highlighting the significance of negative social interaction experiences in the elicitation of binge eating. The clinical implications of the present findings are substantial as they underscore the effectiveness of eating disorder treatment programs which consider interpersonal disturbances in their therapeutic interventions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28998 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Chinoy, Tinaz |
| Contributors | Koestner, Richard (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001482383, proquestno: NN08085, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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