Objective: To examine whether sexual assault prospectively predicts unhealthy weight management behaviors in college women. Method: Participants were female college students (N = 483) with monthly assessments across the first year, including the frequency and severity of sexual assault and unhealthy weight management behaviors. Results: Frequency…

Objective: The current study aimed to compare endorsement of the muscular- and thin-ideals alone, as well as simultaneous endorsement of both as representative of the fit-ideal and examine potential negative correlates of each type of ideal internalization. Participants: Participants were 300 female undergraduate students. Methods: Participants…

Objective: Focusing on body functionality -- what the body can do -- may benefit women's body image. This pilot study examined the effects of focusing on body functionality appreciation during an audio-guided mirror gazing task (F-MGT). Participants: 101 college women, M(SD)[subscript AGE] = 19.49(1.31), were alternately assigned to F-MGT or a…

Background: Research on coaction suggests improvements in physical activity and emotional eating will occur in a reciprocal manner. Aims: To determine if changes in body satisfaction mediate relations between physical activity and emotional eating changes and if age affects degree of change in those variables. Method: Groups of early adult (n =…

This study aims to investigate the relationship of the automatic thoughts, eating attitudes, body mass index and socio-demographic attributes of women between the ages of 18-55 years. The universe of the study consisted of 356 women. The data were collected using a demographic information form, automatic thoughts scale and eating attitude test.…

Introduction: Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a cluster of emotional, and physical symptoms PMDD is a more serious and severe premenstrual condition that affects about 5% of women during their reproductive years. Although PMDD, like PMS, may include physical symptoms, it always involves a worsening of mood that interferes significantly…

Weight-related teasing is associated with reduced levels of physical activity in youth, but the importance of weight teasing experiences to the engagement of female college students in physical activity is yet to be determined. Thus, this study examined differences in physical activity engagement and physical activity enjoyment in female college…

Background: Young adults gain weight faster and suffer from chronic diseases at a younger age than their older counterparts. Existing behavioral obesity treatments included few young adults, and their effects on young adults remain unknown. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore whether a behavioral treatment that was effective in…

Background: Body satisfaction interventions have typically been multifaceted and targeted at clinical populations. The aim of the present research was to isolate the effects of self-affirmation on body satisfaction in a community sample and to see whether self-affirmation works by basing one's self-esteem on domains other than body weight and…

This article used data from 5,171 young women participating in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health, a nationally representative longitudinal cohort study, to identify longitudinal trajectory patterns of mental health across 6 surveys over 16 years of early adulthood, from age 18-23 to age 34-39. In addition, we identified both…

A lack of satisfaction with one's body is common among women with obesity, often prompting unhealthy "dieting." Beyond typically slow improvements in weight and body composition, behavioral factors might also affect change in body satisfaction. Age and race/ethnicity (African American vs. White) might moderate such change. Obese women (N…

The present study investigated whether different forms of disordered-eating-related cognitions and psychological flexibility were associated with psychological distress among female Asian American and European American college students in the United States. Disordered-eating-related cognitions examined in the present study included thoughts (a)…

Eating disorders are among the most challenging disorders to treat, with even state-of-the-art cognitive-behavioral treatments achieving only modest success. One possible reason for the high rate of treatment failure for eating disorders is that existing treatments do not attend sufficiently to critical aspects of the disorder such as high…

There has been a shift in the depiction of women in advertising from objectifying representations of women as passive sex objects to agentic sexual representations where the women appear powerful and in control (Gill, 2007a, 2008), and there is substantial evidence that these representations have a negative impact on women's body image. However,…

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and eating disorders often co-occur and share some clinical features. In addition, the co-occurrence of BDD and an eating disorder may be associated with greater impairment in functioning. Furthermore, clinical impressions suggest that this comorbidity may be more treatment resistant than either disorder alone. The…