Tamina Toray

Disordered Eating in College Freshman Women: A Prospective Study

Abstract The authors assessed eating behaviors and attitudes of 225 college freshman women on the bulimia and restraint scales at the beginning of the year. Seven months later, they reassessed 104 of the original students. Concurrent data regression analyses found that symptoms of eating pathology were associated with figure dissatisfaction, ineffectiveness, public self-consciousness, and vigor on the Profile of Mood States, and for bulimia, self-efficacy to control eating when experiencing negative feelings, and reward conditions. Both bulimia and restraint were highly stable across the 7 months. Prospective analyses, controlling for the initial level of eating pathology in hierarchical regressions, found that figure dissatisfaction, ineffectiveness, and alcohol use/abuse over the past year were significant predictors of worsening symptoms. Beginning levels of bulimia and restraint were the best predictors of eating pathology at the end of the study. The roles that self-image and alcohol use may play as vulnerabilities for eating pathology are also considered.

Gender Differences Associated with Adolescent Substance Abuse: Comparisons and Implications for Treatment.

Research on adult substance abusers has revealed a number of social and psychological differences between males and females that have important implications for treatment. Thus far, little attention has been paid to such gender differences in etiology, referral, and treatment among adolescent substance abusers. Data from 930 adolescents in treatment for substance abuse were analyzed to help clarify differences between male and female adolescent substance abusers. Several implications for understanding adolescent substance abuse and treatment are advanced.

Risk factors for maladaptive eating patterns in college women

As the empirical literature on maladaptive eating patterns has grown, the importance of longitudinal studies in establishing causal risk factors has become apparent. The current study reports longitudinal data gathered from the first 20 months of college for female students (n=117). Eating pathology was assessed using a composite measure from the Eating Disorders Inventory. Variables examined as potential risk factors included depression, reassurance seeking, perfectionism, impulsiveness, body dissatisfaction, and stressful events. Eating symptoms were quite stable across the 20-month interval (r=0.68). Although all of the potential risk variables showed significant correlations with eating symptoms, hierarchical regressions controlling for eating symptoms at Time 1 indicated that perfectionism, impulsiveness, and body dissatisfaction failed to uniquely add to the prediction of eating symptoms at Time 2. Depression, reassurance seeking and stressful events did add to this prediction. Failure to find support for variables in a longitudinal design may be due to the age of participants and relative stability of eating symptoms. Perfectionism, and body dissatisfaction may play a causal role in developing eating symptoms at earlier ages, but do not continue to influence the course of these symptoms in late adolescence. Negative affect (depression), needing reassurance in social relationships, and having to deal with stressful events seem to be risk factors for increased eating symptoms in late adolescence.

Weight fluctuation, bulimic symptoms, and self-efficacy for control of eating.

College students who reported recent weight fluctuations of 15 pounds represented 15% of the men (N = 161) and 22% of the women (N = 301) in the study. Comparisons were made with students whose weight had remained stable on 4 subscales of the Eating Disorders Inventory (Bulimia, Body Dissatisfaction, Drive for Thinness, and Interoceptive Awareness), on the Washington Self-Description Questionnaire, and on the Situational Appetite Measure. A MANOVA supported gender differences, with women showing greater levels of body dissatisfaction and concern for thinness. Students whose weight had fluctuated were differentiated from students whose weight had been stable, with weight fluctuations being most strongly related to greater body dissatisfaction and lower levels of self-efficacy for control of eating. Results support the use of a relapse model for weight fluctuation, emphasizing the potential importance of low self-efficacy as a moderator of repeated weight fluctuation.

Reactions to Loss Scale: Assessing Grief in College Students:

The most common tools for assessing grief and loss focus on death-related loss. The Reactions to Loss Scale (RTL) broadens the scope of bereavement measures to include reactions to non-death losses. The population targeted by this measure, emerging adults (college students), commonly experiences a myriad of both death-related and non-death losses. The validity of the Reactions to Loss Scale (RTL) is investigated in 4 studies. Factor analysis of the 65-item RTL (N = 564) identified 3 subscales, each demonstrating good reliability. In the first 3 studies, the RTL was found to be related to depression, anxiety, negative affect, and positive measures of satisfaction with life, happiness, and positive affect. In Study 4, prospective data was utilized to evaluate predictive validity. These data found that the RTL was predictive of longitudinal changes in negative affect, perceived social support, satisfaction with life, and positive feelings about the specific loss.

Assessing Effective Coping with Bereavement in College Students: The Reactions to Loss Scale

The predictive validity of the Reactions to Loss Scale (RTL) was assessed in two studies (N = 185 and 170) of college students who reported a recent loss and their feelings about and preoccupation with the loss. Across a 9–week interval, participants reported an increase in positive feelings about the loss event and a decrease in negative feelings, regret, and preoccupation with the loss. The Positive Reappraisal Scale of the RTL predicted increased positive feelings and a reduction of regret. Avoidance scale of the RTL predicted higher levels of regret and the Loss of Control scale predicted higher levels of negative affect (Study 2). This longitudinal data supports the validity of the Reactions to Loss scale and supports the value of assessing positive, resilient responses to a loss.