Drive for Thinness and Fear of Fat Among College Women: Implications for Practice and Assessment

Abstract

College women are at particular risk for developing eating disorders and related eating and body image concerns.The purpose of this article is to explore how both drive for thinness and fear of fat may be addressed in counseling with college women. Characteristics of drive for thinness and fear of fat as they relate to the development of eating disorders are addressed, and implications for college counseling and assessment of these constructs are presented.ollege women are at particular risk for developing eating disorders due to factors that include perceived social isolation, high anxiety, body C dissatisfaction, general eating disturbances and dieting, and excessive exercise. As many as 61% ofwomen in college report disordered eating behaviors, and 20% acknowledge some form of an eating disorder (Mazzeo, 1999). Many students without clinical eating disorders show behavioral characteristics, including chronic dieting, calorie restriction, bingeing and purging, diuretic or laxative use, and extreme exercise, ofa disorder without the full constellation of psychological traits (Hesse-Biber, 1996). Many women engage in these behaviors in response to stress, discontent, or, most often, dissatisfaction with their weight and appearance. Cook-Cottone and Phelps (2003) discovered that social approval and confidence in one's social situation mitigate body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction is itself among the strongest predictors in the development of eating disorders (AlexanderHigh social demands, social contagion of binge eating, and the social desirability factor all contribute to more pathological scores on measures of disordered eating attitudes and behaviors for college women (Alexander, 1998). Factors not directly linked to eating also contribute to body dissatisfaction and eating disturbances. For example, pressures to date, alcohol and drug use, and lack ofprivacy have been cited as factors that place college women at increased risk for eating dsorders and related eating and body image disturbances, as do reading fashion magazines and not doing very much cooking (Kashubeck, Marchand-Martella, Neal, & Larsen, 1997). Women in sororities have reported significantly more eating-disordered attitudes and behaviors than average college women. Research has demonstrated

What Components of Perfectionism Predict Drive for Thinness?

“…Drive for thinness has also long been an accepted as a core construct in EDs, particular anorexia nervosa (e.g., Abbate-Daga, Piero, Gramaglia, Gandione, & Fassino, 2007;Ahern & Hetherington, 2006;Garner et al, 1983;Levitt, 2004;Miller, Schmidt, Vaillancourt, McDougall, & Laliberte, 2006;Vansteelandt, Rijrnen, Pieters, Probst, & Vanderlinden, 2007) It also has predictive power for wider eating pathology (Ahern & Hetherington, 2006;Garner, Garfinkel, Rockert, & Olmsted, 1987;Lilenfeld, Wonderlich, Riso, Crosby, & Mitchell, 2006;Santonastaso, Friederici, & Favaro, 1999). Drive for thinness is a motivational construct involving preoccupation with weight and concern with dieting, as well as an intense fear of weight gain and a relentless desire to be thinner.…”

Drive for thinness and pursuit of muscularity: the role of gender ideologies

“…Thinness is highly valued in Western culture in the case of women and is considered a key attribute of female beauty, and being thin is perhaps one of the most desirable conditions in society (Levitt, 2004). According to experts, dieting and drive for thinness are more typical of female concerns than male concerns (Grogan & Richards, 2002).…”

Gender differences in prejudice: a biological and social psychological analysis

“…More studies would need to be run in order for a meta-analysis to be conducted on this, but men and women's may differ in their specific attitudes toward the obese. Women commonly demonstrate a greater fear of fat (Levitt, 2004) compared to men who show a greater dislike of fat (Lieberman, Tybur, & Latner, 2012).…”