Body dissatisfaction, bulimia, and depression among women: The mediating role of drive for thinness

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Past research has called into question the apparent relationship between body dissatisfaction and bulimia among women once effects of depression are statistically controlled. We further investigated interrelations among body dissatisfaction, depression, and bulimia, as well as considered individual differences in drive for thinness, within two samples of young adult women. METHOD: The first sample included women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (n = 91) or bulimia nervosa (n = 142), whereas the second sample included college student women (N = 228). Respondents completed self-report measures of bulimia, drive for thinness, negative affect, and body dissatisfaction. RESULTS: At the univariate level, all of the above constructs were significantly related to body dissatisfaction. In multiple regression analyses using depression and bulimia as predictors of body dissatisfaction, both were uniquely related to body dissatisfaction. These findings were similar to the results of previous research. However, when drive for thinness was added to the regression equations, drive for thinness was a unique predictor of body dissatisfaction whereas bulimia was not (neither was depression among college women). DISCUSSION: Bulimia, depression, and body dissatisfaction may be the results of incorporation of cultural standards regarding thinness, hence the apparent relationships among these variables. The role of drive for thinness in the pathogenesis of depression and body dissatisfaction among women needs to be investigated further.

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