Weight concerns influence the development of eating disorders: A 4-year prospective study.

Abstract

The authors examined factors prospectively associated with age of onset of partial syndrome eating disorders over a 4-year interval in a community sample (N = 877) of high school-age adolescent girls. Four percent developed a partial syndrome eating disorder over the interval. A measure of weight concerns was significantly associated with onset in a multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis (p < .001). Girls scoring in the highest quartile on the measure of weight concerns had the highest incidence (10%) of partial syndrome onset, whereas none of the girls in the lowest quartile developed eating disorder symptoms. This finding is consistent with both theoretical and clinical perspectives and may represent a useful step toward the establishment of a rational basis for the choice of a prevention intervention target.

Experimental test of the affect‐regulation theory of bulimic symptoms and substance use: A randomized trial

“…These findings echo the evidence from double-blind randomized treatment trials that suggest that anti-depressant medications result in significant decreases in bulimic symptoms among adults meeting full diagnostic criteria for this eating disorder. 47 These findings also converge with the evidence that depressive symptoms predict onset of bulimic pathology 6,8,48 and may be cautiously interpreted as evidence that depression promotes bulimic symptoms.…”

“…1,2 This theory also suggests that individuals might use radical compensatory behaviors, such as vomiting or laxative abuse, to reduce anxiety about impending weight gain consequent to overeating or because they believe that purging provides an emotional catharsis. In support of this theory, depressive symptoms and negative affect have been found to predict future increases in bulimic symptoms, 3,4 as well as onset of binge eating, 5 bulimic pathology, [6][7][8] and general eating pathology. 9 Although several prospective studies have reported null findings for these relations (e.g., 1, 10-11), these studies were more likely to have used smaller samples and focused on general eating pathology outcomes.…”

The interaction role of obesity and pubertal timing on the psychosocial adjustment of adolescent girls: longitudinal data

“…On the other hand, several research findings demonstrate that the perception of being overweight, more than the actual BMI, predicts dieting and weight control behaviors. 1,34,35 The fact that weight increases were found in our extreme groups regarding BMI, which belong to early (highest BMI) and late maturers (lowest BMI), support the importance of perception in eating disordered behaviors onset.…”

Participation in aesthetic sports and girls' weight concerns at ages 5 and 7 years

“…These findings reveal that weight concerns are emerging very early and are linked to girls' sport participation. Findings from this study are of concern because the girls were only 5 and 7 years old and because weight concerns have been linked to unhealthy weight loss behaviors and subclinical eating disorders (Killen et al, 1996).…”