Department of Psychology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Int J Eat Disord. 2014 Jul;47(5):467-70. doi: 10.1002/eat.22240. Epub 2013 Dec 29.
Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors are common among college women, yet only a subset of this population develops clinically significant disordered eating symptoms during college. Appearance-based social comparisons, particularly those made to others with "better" bodies (i.e., upward appearance comparisons), have demonstrated concurrent relationships with body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. Little is known about the value of these comparisons for predicting the development of eating pathology, however.
The present study examined the predictive value of upward appearance comparisons, as well as established risk factors (e.g., body dissatisfaction, negative affect), for the onset of clinically significant eating pathology over one college semester. College women (N = 454) completed validated self-report measures at the beginning of one semester, and again nine weeks later.
Women who were newly above the clinical threshold for eating pathology at follow-up (n = 31) exhibited stronger baseline tendencies toward upward appearance comparisons than women who were below the threshold at both time points. In contrast, women who were already above the clinical threshold at baseline scored higher on established risk factors.
These findings suggest that the extent of upward appearance comparison may be useful for identifying college women at particular risk for developing clinically significant disordered eating symptoms.
身体不满和饮食失调行为在女大学生中很常见，但只有一部分人群在大学期间会出现临床显著的饮食失调症状。基于外貌的社会比较，特别是与“更好”身材的人进行的比较（即向上的外貌比较），已经证明与身体不满和饮食失调有关。然而，对于这些比较对于预测进食病理学的发展的价值知之甚少。
本研究考察了向上的外貌比较以及既定的风险因素（例如身体不满、负性情绪）对一个大学学期内临床显著饮食病理学发病的预测价值。女大学生（N=454）在一个学期的开始时完成了经过验证的自我报告测量，然后在九周后再次完成。
在随访时新出现饮食病理学临床阈值以上的女性（n=31）与在两个时间点都低于阈值的女性相比，具有更强的向上外貌比较的基线倾向。相比之下，在基线时已经超过临床阈值的女性在既定风险因素上得分更高。
这些发现表明，向上的外貌比较程度可能有助于识别处于发展临床显著饮食失调症状特定风险中的女大学生。
