On the relationship between dieting and "obese" and bulimic eating patterns.

OBJECTIVE

Relationships were studied between emotional, external and restrained eating behavior, and bulimia, and also between these types of eating behavior and body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness.

METHOD

The sample consisted of female adolescents. Eating behavior and body evaluation were measured with scales of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) and the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI).

RESULTS

Significant and high relationships were found between emotional and external and bulimic eating behavior. The same was true for restrained eating, and body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. However, results from factor analyses suggest that the three types of overeating do not point to one and the same construct. Further, also restrained eating was found to point at a different construct than the construct associated with body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. Finally, no high relationships were found between restrained eating and "obese" or bulimic eating patterns. DISCUSSION. The low relationship between restrained eating and various types of overeating is in line with earlier results with the DEBQ Restraint scale and offers further support for the contention that the excessive food intake found in subjects with high scores on the Herman and Polivy's Restraint Scale (RS) may be an artefact of the RS, as a result of its bias towards the selection of a counterregulating sample.