Fryer S, Waller G, Kroese B S
Department of Psychology, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Int J Eat Disord. 1997 Dec;22(4):427-36. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1098-108x(199712)22:4<427::aid-eat8>3.0.co;2-o.
This study explored the relationship between stressors and disturbed eating attitudes among adolescent females, assessing the moderating role of coping and the mediating influence of poor self-esteem.
Two hundred eighty-six teenage girls were recruited from local schools, and completed standardized measures of stressors, coping, self-esteem, perfectionism, and disturbed eating attitudes. Regression analyses were used to test for moderating and mediating effects.
Stressors and emotion-focused coping were found to be associated with low self-esteem, which in turn was strongly associated with disturbed eating attitudes. Stressors were also directly related to disturbed eating attitudes.
The findings provide partial support for existing models of the etiology and maintenance of eating psychopathology, but have wider implications for our understanding of the eating disorders and their treatment.
