Date of Award

5-1-2024

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Drew A Anderson

Committee Members

Julia M Hormes

Keywords

eating disorder psychopathology, eating disorders, fear of weight gain, intolerance of uncertainty, Weight suppression

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology

Abstract

Objective: Weight suppression (WS), the discrepancy between a person’s highest and current body weight, is largely associated with eating pathology in clinical and non-clinical samples. WS may put individuals in a biobehavioral bind: biological factors may drive the body toward weight regain, which in turn drives eating disorder (ED) behaviors in an attempt to prevent weight regain. However, few studies have examined psychological factors that may play a role in the biobehavioral bind of WS. As such, the present study aimed to (1) whether WS was associated with fear of weight gain (FOWG) and intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and (2) whether WS was uniquely associated with eating pathology after accounting for gender, BMI, FOWG, and IU. Method: Participants were N = 436 undergraduate students at a large, Northeastern university who completed a series of self-report questionnaires including the Goldfarb Fear of Fat Scale (GFFS), the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale – Short Form (IUS-12), and the Eating Disorder-Examination – Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Results: Correlation analyses demonstrated that WS was associated with GFFS score and EDE-Q global score, but not with IUS-12 score. Hierarchical linear regression analyses demonstrated that WS was not uniquely associated with EDE-Q global score after accounting for gender, BMI, GFFS score, and IUS-12 score. Discussion: Results of this study support a relationship between WS and FOWG and suggest that these factors may serve to maintain eating pathology. This study highlights the need to target FOWG in ED treatment for weight suppressed individuals. More research is needed in order to clarify the temporal relationship between WS and FOWG and to examine how FOWG may differentially impact the relationship between WS and distinct ED symptoms.

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