The development of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) with scales for restrained, emotional, and external eating is described. Factor analyses have shown that all items on restrained and external eating each have high loadings on one factor, but items on emotional eating have two dimensions, one dealing with eating in response to diffuse emotions, and the other with eating in response to clearly labelled emotions. The pattern of corrected item-total correlation coefficients and of the factors was very similar for various subsamples, which indicates a high degree of stability of dimensions on the eating behavior scales. The norms and Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the scales and also the Pearson's correlation coefficients to assess interrelationships between scales indicate that the scales have a high internal consistency and factorial validity. However, their external validity has yet to be investigated.

The Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) for assessment of restrained, emotional, and external eating behavior.

This article proposes that binge eating is motivated by a desire to escape from self-awareness. Binge eaters suffer from high standards and expectations, especially an acute sensitivity to the difficult (perceived) demands of others. When they fall short of these standards, they develop an aversive pattern of high self-awareness, characterized by unflattering views of self and concern over how they are perceived by others. These aversive self-perceptions are accompanied by emotional distress, which often includes anxiety and depression. To escape from this unpleasant state, binge eaters attempt the cognitive response of narrowing attention to the immediate stimulus environment and avoiding broadly meaningful thought. This narrowing of attention disengages normal inhibitions against eating and fosters an uncritical acceptance of irrational beliefs and thoughts. The escape model is capable of integrating much of the available evidence about binge eating.

http://psych415.class.uic.edu/Readings/Heatherton,%20Binge%20&%20escape,%20PsyBull,%201991.pdf

Binge eating as escape from self-awareness.

The aims of the present review are to apply a recent risk factor approach (H. C. Kraemer et al., 1997) to putative risk factors for eating disorders, to order these along a timeline, and to deduce general taxonomic questions. Putative risk factors were classified according to risk factor type, outcome (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, full vs. partial syndromes), and additional factor characteristics (specificity, potency, need for replication). Few of the putative risk factors were reported to precede the onset of the disorder. Many factors were general risk factors; only few differentiated between the 3 eating disorder syndromes. Common risk factors from longitudinal and cross-sectional studies were gender, ethnicity, early childhood eating and gastrointestinal problems, elevated weight and shape concerns, negative self-evaluation, sexual abuse and other adverse experiences, and general psychiatric morbidity. Suggestions are made for the conceptualization of future risk factor studies.

Coming to Terms With Risk Factors for Eating Disorders: Application of Risk Terminology and Suggestions for a General Taxonomy

Objective: Health advocates have focused on the prevalence of advertising for calorie-dense low-nutrient foods as a significant contributor to the obesity epidemic This research tests the hypothesis that exposure to food advertising during TV viewing may also contribute to obesity by triggering automatic snacking of available food Design: In Experiments 1a and 1b, elementary-school-age children watched a cartoon that contained either food advertising or advertising for other products and received a snack while watching In Experiment 2, adults watched a TV program that included food advertising that promoted snacking and/or fun product benefits, food advertising that promoted nutrition benefits, or no food advertising The adults then tasted and evaluated a range of healthy to unhealthy snack foods in an apparently separate experiment Main Outcome Measures: Amount of snack foods consumed during and after advertising exposure Results: Children consumed 45% more when exposed to food advertising Adults consumed more of both healthy and unhealthy snack foods following exposure to snack food advertising compared to the other conditions In both experiments, food advertising increased consumption of products not in the presented advertisements, and these effects were not related to reported hunger or other conscious influences Conclusion: These experiments demonstrate the power of food advertising to prime automatic eating behaviors and thus influence far more than brand preference alone

/pdf/priming-effects-of-television-food-advertising-on-eating-5gf7jdytsa.pdf

Priming Effects of Television Food Advertising on Eating Behavior

Community-based prospective studies are needed to shed light on mechanisms that may influence development of eating disorders and identify variables that could serve as potential targets for prevention efforts. In this paper we examine level of weight preoccupation and other variables prospectively associated with age of onset of eating disorder symptoms over a 3-year interval in a community sample (N = 939) of young adolescent girls. 3.6% (32/887) experienced onset of symptoms over the interval. Only one factor, a measure of Weight Concerns, was significantly associated with onset (p < .001). Girls scoring in the highest quartile on the measure of Weight Concerns had the shortest survival time (12% incidence by age 14.5) and those scoring in the lowest quartile had the highest survival time (2% incidence by age 14.5; p < .001). This finding is consistent with both theoretical and clinical perspectives and represents one of the first prospective demonstrations of a linkage between weight and body shape concerns and later onset of eating disorder symptoms. An understanding of the independent variables that predispose girls to development of symptoms is a useful step towards the establishment of a rational basis for the choice of a prevention intervention target.

/pdf/pursuit-of-thinness-and-onset-of-eating-disorder-symptoms-in-4cpkvrlxb6.pdf

Pursuit of thinness and onset of eating disorder symptoms in a community sample of adolescent girls: A three‐year prospective analysis

Two experiments were performed in an investigation of the effects of distraction and emotional arousal on the proofreading performance of dieting female subjects. In Experiment 1, it was found that distraction initially impaired the performance of dieters and facilitated the performance of nondieters, a pattern previously shown by Rodin to apply to obese and normal weight subjects, respectively, and interpreted as evidence of greater externality in the obese. Subsequent retesting of the same subjects in succeeding months, however, revealed a complete reversal of the original results. In Experiment 2, the reaction to distraction found in the first phase of Experiment 1 was obtained when subjects were in a situation of minimal threat. In a situation of high threat, the relative distractibility of dieters was reversed, as in the latter phases of Experiment 1. An explanation is offered for these data in terms of the greater emotionality of dieters, the susceptibility of cognitive performance to arousal (distraction, anxiety) manipulations, and the potentially competing effects of distraction and anxiety. Implications for the prevailing "trait" view of externality (stimulus binding) are discussed.

J Threlkeld

Papers

Distractibility in dieters and nondieters: an alternative view of "externality".