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Pathways to serious dieting: Significant insights from discontinuity
Author(s) -
Huon Gail F.,
Lim Jacqueline,
Walton Carla J.,
Hayne Angela M.,
Gunewardene Anoushka I.
Publication year - 2000
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(200012)28:4<356::aid-eat2>3.0.co;2-f
Subject(s) - dieting , conformity , psychology , social environment , developmental psychology , context (archaeology) , body mass index , social influence , clinical psychology , social psychology , medicine , obesity , weight loss , paleontology , political science , law , biology , pathology
Objectives This paper outlines a strategy for systematically examining the discontinuity in pathways to serious dieting. Method Eight hundred and twenty‐three adolescent females were recruited from six high schools in metropolitan Sydney, Australia. They completed a battery of measures that assessed perceived social influences to diet, predisposition to conformity, protective skills, aspects of positive familial context, and dieting‐related attitudes and status. Testing took place over two occasions approximately 10 months apart. Results Family context, protective skills, and a predisposition to conformity were found to differentiate the vulnerable girls who reported high levels of social influence from those who did not. However, those variables did not differentiate those with high social influence who seriously diet from nondieters. Body mass index, drive for thinness, and body dissatisfaction differentiated all of the comparison groups tested. Age did not consistently differentiate these groups. Discussion The findings can tell us what seems to protect girls who appear susceptible to social influences from becoming serious dieters. © 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 28: 356–363, 2000.