Brockdorf Alexandra N, Mii Akemi E, Haines Anne M, Jaffe Anna E
Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington.
Psychol Trauma. 2025 Mar;17(3):612-620. doi: 10.1037/tra0001762. Epub 2024 Aug 22.
Exposure to potentially traumatic events is well-known to disrupt cognitions about the self. Among trauma-exposed college students, negative cognitions about the self can include low self-worth and heightened perception of behavioral control over outcomes (i.e., self-controllability), including overevaluation of self-control over weight, shape, and eating behaviors. Thus, posttraumatic cognitions may increase risk for eating pathology. These associations may be particularly heightened among those whose trauma was of a sexual nature, given the stigma and inaccurate rape myths that often place the blame on sexual violence survivors rather than perpetrators. Consistent with these possibilities, the present study tested whether sexual violence history moderated expected associations between lower self-worth and greater eating pathology and between greater self-controllability and eating pathology.
Participants were 1,303 trauma-exposed college students (71.6% cisgender women) who completed self-report measures. Two linear regression models were examined, controlling for gender identity and posttraumatic stress symptom severity.
As expected, more negative views toward the self were associated with greater eating pathology, and this association was stronger among college students who had experienced sexual violence compared with those who only experienced other trauma types. In contrast, beliefs about behavioral control over outcomes were unrelated to eating pathology regardless of trauma type.
Findings point to low self-worth as a cognitive target for future research and clinical efforts aimed at addressing trauma-related distress and eating pathology concurrently, especially among individuals with a history of sexual violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
众所周知，接触潜在创伤性事件会扰乱对自我的认知。在遭受创伤的大学生中，对自我的消极认知可能包括低自尊以及对行为对结果的控制感增强（即自我可控性），包括对体重、体型和饮食行为的自我控制过度评估。因此，创伤后认知可能会增加饮食失调的风险。鉴于耻辱感以及不准确的强奸谬论常常将责任归咎于性暴力幸存者而非施暴者，这些关联在那些创伤具有性侵犯性质的人群中可能会更加突出。与这些可能性一致，本研究检验了性暴力史是否会调节较低自尊与更严重饮食失调之间以及更高自我可控性与饮食失调之间的预期关联。
参与者为1303名遭受创伤的大学生（71.6%为顺性别女性），他们完成了自我报告测量。检验了两个线性回归模型，并控制了性别认同和创伤后应激症状严重程度。
正如预期的那样，对自我的负面看法与更严重的饮食失调相关，并且与仅经历其他创伤类型的大学生相比，这种关联在经历过性暴力的大学生中更强。相比之下，无论创伤类型如何，对行为对结果的控制信念与饮食失调均无关。
研究结果表明，低自尊是未来研究和临床努力的一个认知目标，旨在同时解决与创伤相关的困扰和饮食失调问题，尤其是在有性暴力史的个体中。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2025美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
