The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship, frequency, gender
differences, situations and motivations of self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol
with disordered eating, alcohol use and psychopathology; with a nonclinical university
sample of males and females in New Zealand. Participants were 102 male and 159 female
university students ranging in age from 17-35 years who completed a survey designed for
this study along with tests that measure eating disordered attitudes and behaviours,
bulimia symptoms, depression and alcohol use. Overall, 90.04% of the sample reported
that they drink alcohol and, of that subset, 57.58% of males and 42.26% of females
reported having self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol. The behaviour was related
to eating pathology, depression and alcohol use with gender differences apparent.
Specifically, on measures of disordered eating, females who self-induce vomiting after
drinking alcohol scored higher than females who do not report the behaviour (no
difference apparent for males), and overall, females scored higher than males. In terms of
hazardous alcohol use, males who self-induce vomiting after drinking alcohol scored
higher than males who do not with the same true for females, and overall males scored
higher than females. In terms of drinking at the dependency level, individuals who
reported self-induced vomiting after drinking alcohol drink at a more harmful level than
those who do not (both males and females) and more males than females reported
hazardous alcohol usage rates. When examining depressed symptoms, females who selfinduce
vomiting after drinking alcohol reported more depressed symptoms than females
who do not, with males who reported the behaviour endorsing less depressed symptoms
than males who do not. Overall, females indicated more depressed symptoms than males.
Persons who engaged in the behaviour were more likely to endorse it as being acceptable,
with this trend being stronger for males. Females who self-induce vomiting after drinking
were more likely to endorse symptoms of anorexia, bulimia and depression, whereas
males who reported the behaviour were more likely to indicate harmful drinking levels,
and perform the behaviour to carry on drinking. Thus, for males, self-induced vomiting
after drinking alcohol was related to substance abuse whereas, for females, the behaviour
may be more related to disordered eating.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:canterbury.ac.nz/oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/2680 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Blackmore, Natalie Patricia Irene |
| Publisher | University of Canterbury. Psychology |
| Source Sets | University of Canterbury |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic thesis or dissertation, Text |
| Rights | Copyright Natalie Patricia Irene Blackmore, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml |
| Relation | NZCU |
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