Correlates of disordered eating among female university students : a resilience model

The purpose of this study was to investigate putative protective factors and resilience with respect to disordered eating among a sample of female university students. Putative protective factors suggested by the literature include: low thin-ideal . internalization, body image satisfaction, high self-esteem, adaptive coping, adequate perceived control, sports/athletic participation, school achievement, healthy family and peer food- and weight- related attitudes, and adaptive family dynamics. Participants completed the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3) Internalization-General subscale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), Family Environment Scale (FES), selected items from the Belief in Personal Control Scale (BPCS) and answered questions pertaining to disordered eating, sports/athletic participation, as well as family and peer food- and weight-related attitudes. Objective measures of body composition, height, weight, and hip and waist circumference were also obtained. Although lower levels of thin-ideal internalization and body image dissatisfaction were found to be the most robust protective factors for disordered eating, higher self-esteem and less maladaptive coping (distraction and emotion-focused) were also found to be related to resilience.