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Psychological stress, coping, and symptoms of disordered eating in a community sample of young Australian women
Author(s) -
Ball Kylie,
Lee Christina
Publication year - 2002
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/eat.1113
Subject(s) - disordered eating , dieting , psychology , coping (psychology) , longitudinal study , clinical psychology , eating disorders , maladaptive coping , young adult , cohort , coping behavior , developmental psychology , weight loss , obesity , medicine , pathology
Objective To investigate the relationships among stress, coping, and symptoms of disordered eating in a community sample of young Australian women. Method A longitudinal study design was employed. Two mail‐out surveys, assessing perceived psychological stress, coping strategies, body weight dissatisfaction, dieting, and disordered eating behaviors, were completed 6 months apart by 415 young women selected from a cohort of the Women's Health Australia Study. Results Strong cross‐sectional relationships among the study variables were found. Results of longitudinal analyses, however, demonstrated only tenuous relationships among stress, coping, and later symptoms of disordered eating. Discussion These results did not support the hypothesis that stress and coping strategies would predict disordered eating over time. Some evidence was found for a modest reverse relationship between stress and disordered eating. Although contrary to generally accepted theoretical models of disordered eating, these findings are consistent with those of the few previous longitudinal studies reported. Theoretical implications are discussed. © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 31: 71–81, 2002.