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Predictors of binge eating in bulimic and nonbulimic women
Author(s) -
Greenberg Barbara R.
Publication year - 1986
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 - 10.1002/1098-108x(198602)5:2<269::aid-eat2260050207>3.0.co;2-3
Subject(s) - binge eating , psychology , beck depression inventory , personality , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , bulimia nervosa , personality assessment inventory , big five personality traits , psychiatry , eating disorders , anxiety , social psychology , economics , macroeconomics
Abstract The relationships between depression, dietary restraint, assertiveness, life stress, and binge eating were assessed in a group of 20 bulimic female undergraduates and 114 nonbulimic female undergraduates. This research was conducted in order to gain a better understanding of the personality characteristics associated with and possibly leading to the bulimic syndrome. The bulimic subjects scored more deviantly than the nonbulimic subjects on the measures of depression, dietary restraint, life stress, and binge eating. Correlational analyses indicated that several of these personality characteristics were significantly related to one another and to Binge Scale scores. A step‐wise regression analysis indicated that for the nonbulimic sample, both Restraint Scale scores and Beck Depression Inventory scores were independent predictors of severity of binge eating behavior. For the bulimic sample, a similar analysis indicated that Restraint Scale scores were the only independent predictor of Binge Scale scores. Finally, it was found that the bulimic subjects were significantly more likely than the nonbulimics to have high scores on both depression and dietary restraint. The results of the study were interpreted as indicating that bulimia and/or binge eating episodes may be a reaction to depression in women who are in a state of physiological deprivation because of their restrained eating habits.