Examining a psychosocial interactive model of binge eating and vomiting in women with bulimia nervosa and subthreshold bulimia nervosa

Abstract

The current study tested a psychosocial interactive model of perfectionism, self-efficacy, and weight/ shape concern within a sample of women with clinically significant bulimic symptoms, examining how different dimensions of perfectionism operated in the model. Individuals with bulimia nervosa (full diagnostic criteria or subthreshold) completed measures of bulimic symptoms, multidimensional perfectionism, self-efficacy, and weight/shape concern. Among those who were actively binge eating (n = 180), weight/shape concern was associated with binge eating frequency in the context of high perfectionism (either maladaptive or adaptive) and low self-efficacy. Among those who were actively vomiting (n = 169), weight/shape concern was associated with vomiting frequency only in the context of high adaptive perfectionism and low self-efficacy. These findings provide support for the value of this psychosocial interactive model among actively binge eating and purging samples and for the importance of considering different dimensions of perfectionism in research and treatment related to bulimia nervosa.

How perfectionism and ineffectiveness influence growth of eating disorder risk in young adolescent girls

“…Further research is required that has the capacity to examine and test more complex models of eating disorder aetiology. Some issues that deserve further investigation include the following: whether self-criticism independent of the drive to meet high standards is important in increasing risk for disordered eating; given existing moderator models of perfectionism predicting disordered eating (e.g., Bardone-Cone et al, 2008;Boone et al, 2014), models should also investigate moderators simultaneously with the mediating relationships; it is likely that there are multiple and simultaneous mediators that can influence disordered eating and further investigation of these are required; the developmental relevance of this model also requires testing, in terms of children and older adolescents.…”

Different Moderators of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on Subjective and Objective Binge Eating in Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder: A Three-Year Follow-Up Study

“…Subjective binge episodes were defined as the consumption of a not objectively large quantity of food in a discrete episode, while experiencing a sense of loss of control [3,10]. …”

“…Different studies supported the variability in the phenomenology of binge eating associated with BN and BED syndromes [2,9,10,11,12]. The feelings and the affects experienced during binge episodes seem to be different in BN and BED, with less prebinge emotional activation in BED [13], and it has been suggested that the association between impulsivity, eating psychopathology and different emotions with binge eating plays different roles in BN and BED [14,15,16,17].…”

Exploring the Relationship between Coping Strategies and Binge Eating in Nonclinical Adolescents

“…Forty-two per cent of the 14 -18 year -old adolescents reported 'recurrent episodes of binge eating' with a sense of loss of control (37.8% of boys and 48.14% of girls). More recently, Sierra-Baigrie and Lemos-Giráldez (2008) obtained similar rates, with 33.2% (37.3% of boys and 27.4% of girls) of the adolescents aged 12-18 years who participated indicating that they had had eating binges in the last 6 months.The aetiology of binge eating has been the focus of a great number of studies in the last few decades which have attempted to establish the factors and variables involved in the development and maintenance of this pathological eating behaviour (e.g., Bardone-Cone et al, 2008;Sherry & Hall, 2009 theories proposed to explain binge eating, the escape model by Heatherton and Baumeister (1991) posits that individuals with high standards may binge as an attempt to escape from negative self-awareness when those standards are not met. In this model, binge eating is viewed as an escape mechanism when faced with a negative affective state.…”