Femininity, Bulimia, and Distress in College Women

Abstract

This study investigated differences in the scores on perceived Distress and Bulimia among college women with varying scores on the Behavioral Self-report of Femininity. Distress was assessed using The Psychological Distress Inventory and Bulimia was measured using the Bulimia Cognitive Distortions Scale. Women who reported low numbers of stereotypic feminine behaviors scored lower on the Bulimia Cognitive Distortions Scale than women reporting moderate to high numbers of stereotypic feminine behaviors. Distress scores were not significantly different between women scoring high and low on Bulimic Cognitive Distortions, and Bulimic Cognitive Distortion scores did not vary as a function of scores on Distress and Femininity. A multiple regression indicated that one factor of the Behavioral Self-report of Femininity, Social Connectedness, made a significant contribution to the prediction of Bulimia scores.

Toward a Theoretical Model of Women's Body Image Resilience

“…There is evidence that women are invested in these belief systems. In one study, a majority of college women in the sample believed that thinness is associated with greater attractiveness, social success, and acceptance (Brazelton, Greene, Gynther, & O'Mell, 1998). Another study that examined the weight loss expectancies of college women found that those who had the highest expectations for the effects of weight loss (i.e., increased social confidence and sense of self-worth, positive performance, and social approval) were more likely to binge, purge, have body image concerns, and experience a perceived lack of control of eating (Thombs, Rosenberg, Mahoney, & Daniel, 1996).…”

“…Many women experience extreme pressures to fulfill traditional gender role expectations while also encountering additional pressures to exhibit independence and success in academic and career arenas. They are expected to be physically attractive, passive, nurturing, cooperative, and to deny their own needs while simultaneously valuing achievement in the workplace, intelligence, assertiveness, self-reliance, and separation from parents and other significant relationships (Brazelton et al, 1998;Hart & Kenny, 1997;Lovejoy, 2001). Women who internalize these pressures and believe that they must meet these contradictory expectations adhere to what Steiner-Adair (1986) termed the superwoman myth, and it is these women who Toward a Theoretical Model of Women's Body Image Resilience also experience body dissatisfaction and vulnerability to the onset of eating disorders.…”

Diagnosing, Conceptualizing, and Treating Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified: A Comprehensive Practice Model

“…For example, early on, several researchers reported positive outcomes from moving nutritional programming outside of health centers and counseling centers and into natural school, campus, or community ecologies; posting menu boards with nutritional information in cafeterias, showing slide shows about nutritional choices, offering workshops in recreation centers for individuals interested in weight loss, and offering nutritional programs in dining halls all have been reported to produce positive changes in participants' food type and amount selection, weight control and exercise behavior, and eating-related knowledge and attitudes (Daniel, 1991;Kessler, Jonas, & Gilham, 1992;Koszewski et al, 1990;O'Conner, 1991). Such programs require the counselor to emphasize the negative effects of unhealthy dieting and weight management choices and underscore the inability of dieting to promote lasting weight loss or produce the idealized thinness in body shape typically sought by girls and women through dieting and unhealthy compensatory behaviors (Brazelton, Greene, Gynther, & O'Mell, 1998;Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1984;Stice, Presnell, Gau, & Shaw, 2007).…”

“…Counselors implementing the social cognitive model attempt to counteract “the powerful influence of current social and cultural forces on women's body image and development, [whereby] girls are taught at an early age that they should pursue the societal ideal of beauty” with its focus on “extreme thinness as central to beauty and necessary for women's social success and happiness” (Choate & Schwitzer, 2009, p. 166; see also American Psychological Association, 2007; Brazelton et al, 1998; Rodin et al, 1984). As a general recommendation, prevention programs utilizing the social cognitive model aim to (a) increase female participants’ awareness of current sociocultural pressures of appearance, (b) increase their recognition that these heavy pressures are for a usually unattainable ideal, and (c) increase their awareness that endorsing this unattainable beauty ideal and tying their self‐evaluation to assessments of their body based on this ideal leaves them susceptible to developing eating‐related concerns (Keel, 2005; Levine & Piran, 2004; Stice & Hoffman, 2004).…”