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The relationship between perceived evaluation of weight and treatment outcome among individuals with binge eating disorder
Author(s) -
Eldredge Kathleen L.,
Agras W. Stewart
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-108x(199707)22:1<43::aid-eat5>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - psychopathology , psychology , binge eating , affect (linguistics) , binge eating disorder , clinical psychology , population , weight loss , depression (economics) , eating disorders , bulimia nervosa , obesity , demography , medicine , macroeconomics , communication , economics , sociology
Objective This study was designed to explore among individuals with binge eating disorder (BED) perceptions of others' evaluation of their weight‐related behavior and affect aroused by such. Method: Prior to treatment for binge eating and weight loss, 47 subjects diagnosed with BED completed a questionnaire designed to assess the perceived evaluation of an understanding and a critical individual in both positive and negative weight‐related situations and subjects' affective responses to being evaluated. Results: Subjects exhibited characteristic patterns of affective response to perceived evaluation of their weight‐related behavior, with negative situations and critical evaluators evoking greater degrees of negative affect. Negative affect in response to perceived evaluation was associated with poor outcome with weight loss but not binge eating. However, this finding was due to the correlation between negative affect in response to perceived evaluation and global severity of psychopathology (SCL‐90‐R). Discussion: The results suggest that psychopathology in this population predicts poor outcome with weight loss, and further that independent of its relationship with depression, psychopathology is strongly associated with a tendency to experience negative affect in response to perceived evaluation by others of weight‐related behavior. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 22: 43–49, 1997.