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| |  Depression, Difficulty Expressing Feelings Associated With Eating Disorders For Women From Abusive Families WASHINGTON, DC -- January 14, 2002 -- Research has shown that more than half of college women have experienced eating disorder symptoms (although most do not have full-blown anorexia or bulimia). While the cause of eating disorders is still unknown, new research suggests that depression and difficulty expressing one's feelings may be a risk factor for disordered eating in young women with a history of family problems or abuse. Psychologists Suzanne E. Mazzeo, Ph.D., of Virginia Commonwealth University and Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, studied 820 undergraduate female college students to see whether certain risk factors led to disordered eating. The researchers found that family conflict, family cohesion, childhood physical and emotional abuse and neglect did indirectly influence whether a college student would develop problem eating behaviors. However, they found that depression and alexithymia -- difficulty in identifying and describing one's own feelings -- more directly influences whether women from this type of background develop eating problems. The findings appear in the January issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). "Taken together, results regarding the associations among alexithymia, depression and disordered eating suggest that it is not the mere presence or absence of childhood emotional and physical abuse and neglect that is associated with disordered eating," say the authors. "Rather, the development of alexithymia and depressive symptoms in response to these childhood experiences seems to be most strongly associated with disordered eating severity." The results suggest that individuals who engage in disordered eating behaviors, as well as individuals at risk for developing these behaviors, may benefit from interventions that address adaptive ways to cope with depression, according to the researchers. More research is needed, say the authors, to clarify causal risk factors that could be targeted in prevention programs. But the findings of this study can help college counselors and psychologists with what to look for when helping students with eating disorders. They should not only evaluate the presence or absence of conflict and cohesiveness in the student's family environment, but also determine whether they are depressed and having trouble identifying and talking about what is bothering them now, according to the study.
SOURCE: American Psychological Association
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