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Emotion contagion moderates the relationship between emotionally‐negative families and abnormal eating behavior
Author(s) -
Weisbuch Max,
Ambady Nalini,
Slepian Michael L.,
Jimerson David C.
Publication year - 2011
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.20873
Subject(s) - psychology , extraversion and introversion , neuroticism , conscientiousness , developmental psychology , agreeableness , alexithymia , emotional eating , personality , openness to experience , clinical psychology , big five personality traits , social psychology , eating behavior , obesity , medicine
Objective: To reconcile empirical inconsistencies in the relationship between emotionally‐negative families and daughters' abnormal eating, we hypothesized a critical moderating variable: daughters' vulnerability to emotion contagion. Method: A nonclinical sample of undergraduate females ( N = 92) was recruited via an advertisement and completed self‐report measures validated for assessing: families' expressive negativity, daughters' susceptibility to emotion contagion, dietary restraint, and disinhibition, eating attitudes, and several control variables (interpersonal orientation, alexithymia, and the big five personality traits: extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness). Results: All variables and interactions were entered as predictors in a multistep multiple regression equation. Only an emotion contagion by family expressivity interaction term significantly predicted unhealthy eating attitudes (β = .29, p = .02) and dietary restraint (β = .27, p = .03). Negatively expressive families significantly induced unhealthy eating and restraint but only among young women susceptible to emotion contagion ( p s < .05). Discussion: Young women susceptible to emotion contagion may be at increased risk for eating disorders. © 2010 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (Int J Eat Disord 2010)