191 research outputs found
The Social Appearance Anxiety Scale in Italian adolescent populations: Construct validation and group discrimination in community and clinical eating disorders samples
No full textAnxiety in situations where one’s overall appearance (including body shape) may be negatively evaluated is hypothesized to play a central role in Eating Disorders (EDs) and in their co-occurrence with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Three studies were conducted among community (N = 1995) and clinical (N = 703) ED samples of 11- to 18-year-old Italian girls and boys to (a) evaluate the psychometric qualities and measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I) of the Social Appearance Anxiety (SAA) Scale (SAAS) and (b) determine to what extent SAA or other situational domains of social anxiety related to EDs distinguish adolescents with an ED only from those with SAD. Results upheld the one-factor structure and ME/I of the SAAS across samples, gender, age categories, and diagnostic status (i.e., ED participants with and without comorbid SAD). The SAAS demonstrated high internal consistency and 3-week test–retest reliability. The strength of the inter-relationships between SAAS and measures of body image, teasing about appearance, ED symptoms, depression, social anxiety, avoidance, and distress, as well as the ability of SAAS to discriminate community adolescents with high and low levels of ED symptoms and community participants from ED participants provided construct validity evidence. Only SAA strongly differentiated adolescents with any ED from those with comorbid SAD (23.2 %). Latent mean comparisons across all study groups were performed and discussed
The developmental effects of media-ideal internalization and self-objectification processes on adolescents’ negative body-feelings, dietary restraint, and binge eating
No full textDespite accumulated experimental evidence of the negative effects of exposure to media-idealized images, the degree to which body image, and eating related disturbances are caused by media portrayals of gendered beauty ideals remains controversial. On the basis of the most up-to-date meta-analysis of experimental studies indicating that media-idealized images have the most harmful and substantial impact on vulnerable individuals regardless of gender (i.e., “internalizers” and “self-objectifiers”), the current longitudinal study examined the direct and mediated links posited in objectification theory among media-ideal internalization, self-objectification, shame and anxiety surrounding the body and appearance, dietary restraint, and binge eating. Data collected from 685 adolescents aged between 14 and 15 at baseline (47 % males), who were interviewed and completed standardized measures annually over a 3-year period, were analyzed using a structural equation modeling approach. Results indicated that media-ideal internalization predicted later thinking and scrutinizing of one’s body from an external observer’s standpoint (or self-objectification), which then predicted later negative emotional experiences related to one’s body and appearance. In turn, these negative emotional experiences predicted subsequent dietary restraint and binge eating, and each of these core features of eating disorders influenced each other. Differences in the strength of these associations across gender were not observed, and all indirect effects were significant. The study provides valuable information about how the cultural values embodied by gendered beauty ideals negatively influence adolescents’ feelings, thoughts and behaviors regarding their own body, and on the complex processes involved in disordered eating. Practical implications are discussed
Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Disorder Symptomatology: A Latent Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of Moderating Variables in 18-to-28-Year-Old Males
No full textABSTRACT. Although body dissatisfaction is recognized as the strongest risk factor for eating disturbances, a majority of young males are body dissatisfied, but do not concomitantly report severe levels of eating disorder symptomatology. The present investigation was designed to examine five theoretically relevant variables (i.e., body checking, emotional dysregulation, perfectionism, insecure-anxious attachment, and self-esteem) as potential moderators of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and two critical components of male eating disorder symptomatology: drive for muscularity and bulimic behaviors. Data collected from 551 Italian males between 18 and 28 years old were analyzed using latent structural equation modeling. The authors found that emotional dysregulation, body checking, insecure-anxious attachment and perfectionism intensified the relationship between body dissatisfaction and each criterion variable representing male eating disorder symptomatology; the interactions accounted respectively for an additional 2%, 7%, 4% and 5% of variance in drive for muscularity and for an additional 6%, 4%, 5%, and 2% of the variance in bulimic behaviors. By contrast self-esteem weakened this relationship and the interactions accounted for an additional 3% of the variance in both drive for muscularity and bulimic behaviors. Implications of these findings for prevention and treatment of male eating disturbances are discussed
Classifying binge eating-disordered adolescents based on severity levels
No full textThe new severity criterion for binge-eating disorder (BED), introduced by the most recent (fifth) edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a means of addressing within-group variability in severity, was tested in 223 Italian (13-18-year-old) adolescents (86.1% females) with (DSM-5) BED presenting for treatment. Analyses revealed that participants classified with mild (35.9% of the sample), moderate (38.1%) severe (13.4%), and extreme (12.6%) severity of BED, based on their clinician-rated weekly frequency of binge-eating (BE) episodes, were statistically distinguishable in physical characteristics (body mass index) and a range of clinical variables regarding eating-related psychopathology and putative maintenance factors, health-related quality of life, and mood and anxiety disorder comorbidity (medium-to-large effect sizes). Between-group differences in age-at-onset of BED or demographics were not detected. The findings provide support for the utility of BE frequency as a severity criterion for BED in adolescence. Implications for future studies are discussed
Testing the cognitive-behavioural maintenance models across DSM-5 bulimic-type eating disorder diagnostic groups: A multi-centre study
No full textThe original cognitive-behavioural (CB) model of bulimia nervosa, which provided the basis for the widely used CB therapy, proposed that specific dysfunctional cognitions and behaviours maintain the disorder. However, amongst treatment completers, only 40–50 % have a full and lasting response. The enhanced CB model (CB-E), upon which the enhanced version of the CB treatment was based, extended the original approach by including four additional maintenance factors. This study evaluated and compared both CB models in a large clinical treatment seeking sample (N = 679), applying both DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria for bulimic-type eating disorders. Application of the DSM-5 criteria reduced the number of cases of DSM-IV bulimic-type eating disorders not otherwise specified to 29.6 %. Structural equation modelling analysis indicated that (a) although both models provided a good fit to the data, the CB-E model accounted for a greater proportion of variance in eating-disordered behaviours than the original one, (b) interpersonal problems, clinical perfectionism and low self-esteem were indirectly associated with dietary restraint through over-evaluation of shape and weight, (c) interpersonal problems and mood intolerance were directly linked to binge eating, whereas restraint only indirectly affected binge eating through mood intolerance, suggesting that factors other than restraint may play a more critical role in the maintenance of binge eating. In terms of strength of the associations, differences across DSM-5 bulimic-type eating disorder diagnostic groups were not observed. The results are discussed with reference to theory and research, including neurobiological findings and recent hypotheses
The original and enhanced-cognitive behavioural maintenance models of bulimia: test and comparison in a treatment-seeking sample.
No full textIntroduction: since the Enhanced-Cognitive behavioural (CB) model of Bulimia Nervosa (BN) was devolved to expand the original CB model by encapsulating four additional maintenance factors thought to account for the persistence of BN and interfere with or inhibit treatment effectiveness, examining whether the predictive ability of the E-CB model would be improved by thaddition of interpersonal problems, core low self-esteem, clinical perfectionism, and mood intolerance could potentially have implications for understanding BN maintenance. The study aimed at examining and comparing the original and enhanced CB maintenance models amongst patients with BN. Methods: data collected from 479 patients seeking treatment for BN (n = 360) or atypical BN (n = 119), who were interviewed and completed standardized self-report measures, were analysed using a structural equation modelling approach. Results: although both models provided a good fit to the data, the enhanced model accounted for a greater proportion of variance in restraint, binge eating, and purging than the original one. In the enhanced model, interpersonal problems, clinical perfectionism and core low self-esteem were indirectly associated with restraint through over-evaluation of shape and weight. Interpersonal problems and mood intolerance were directly linked to binge eating but the path from restraint to binge eating was non-significant. Increased mood intolerance and binge eating were associated with increased purging. Structural path differences across groups were not observed. Conclusions: in addition to dysfunctional cognitions and behaviour, assessment and target of the additional maintenance factors may result in improved treatment outcomes amongst patients with BN seeking treatment
El diario de Augusto Monterroso: La letra E
No full textIn El diario de Augusto Monterroso: La letra E (in Assunta Polizzi, Parole discorsi testi nelle culture ispaniche, a cura di, Palermo, Flaccovio, 2007, pp.21-36) the author reflects on the genre of the journal within the framework of the ‘modern’, halfway between the existential testimony and an exercise in writing; fiction and confession.
The paper examines the journal of Augusto Monterroso, La letra E, a text focusing on the image of a writer continually searching for adequate forms of expression and his doubts on the very act of writing. La letra E thus ends up being a further testimony to the commitment of the writer to the written word and –at the same time- to his clear intention to pinpoint the modalities of the literary journal as genre, and consequently one of the forms, whether sophisticated or not, of lie, fiction and masking
Psychosocial moderators of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and symptoms of eating disorders: A look at a sample of young Italian women
No full textIntroduction
Various psychosocial variables may affect the strength of the relationship between body image dissatisfaction and women's eating disorder symptomatology.
Objective
Informed by Tylka (2004) and Brannan and Petrie (2011) research, the current study examined body surveillance and self-esteem as well as three additional theoretically relevant variables (social interaction anxiety, internalization of media ideals and attachment anxiety) as potential moderators of this relationship.
Method
A cross-sectional design was used. A sample of 538 young Italian women completed self-report questionnaires.
Results
Hierarchical moderated regression indicated that self-esteem buffered the deleterious effects of body dissatisfaction, whereas social interaction anxiety, body surveillance, internalization of media ideals and attachment anxiety intensified the primary body dissatisfaction-eating disorder symptomatology relationship.
Conclusion
Several risk and protective factors were found to interact with body dissatisfaction to influence its relation to women's eating disorder symptomatology. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed
Mechanisms of influence of body checking on binge eating
No full textInternational Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology
November 11, 2014
Mechanisms of influence of body checking on binge eating ( Articles not published yet, but available online Article in press About articles in press (opens in a new window) )
Dakanalis, A.a , Carrà, G.b, Timko, A.c, Volpato, C.d, Pla-Sanjuanelo, J.e, Zanetti, A.a, Clerici, M.d, Riva, G.f
a University of Pavia, Italy
b University College of London, United Kingdom
c Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA
d University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
e Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona
f Catholic University of Milan and Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Italy
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Abstract
Despite the theorized role of body checking behaviours in the maintenance process of binge eating, the mechanisms by which they may impact binge eating remain unclear. Using objectification model of eating pathology as a theoretical framework, the authors examined the potential intervening roles of body shame, appearance anxiety, and dietary restraint in the pathway between body checking and binge eating. Data collected from a large sample of treatment-seeking people with Bulimic-type Eating Disorders (N = 801) were analysed trough structural equation modelling. Results showed that, regardless of specific DSM-5 diagnostic categories, body checking behaviours were indirectly associated with binge eating and dietary restraint through body shame and appearance anxiety, whereas dietary restraint was directly linked to binge eating. The findings have clinical utility as they contribute to gaining insight into how critical scrutiny of one's body may act in several indirect ways to affect binge eating. We discuss practical implications of the findings
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