EATING BEHAVIORS IN MENTAL HEALTH

Publication Date

Spring 4-23-2025

College

College of Sciences & Mathematics

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

Student Level

Undergraduate

SPARK Category

Research

Faculty Advisor

Abigail Heller

SPARK Session

Developmental Psychopathology 1 or 2 (Heller)

Presentation Type

Talk/Oral

Summary

This study investigated whether conscientiousness predicts disordered eating behaviors in late adolescents diagnosed with eating disorders while controlling for gender. It also explored the association between body dissatisfaction and total depression. Late adolescents (aged 18-22; M = 20.38, SD =1.45) diagnosed with eating disorders (N=37) were recruited from the Prolific platform to complete an online self-report survey via Qualtrics. In the survey, participants answered questions about demographics, disordered eating behavior, body dissatisfaction, depression, and personality. Once all of the participants completed the survey they were compensated $2.50 via Prolific. Contrary to expectations, conscientiousness did not predict eating disorder behavior after controlling for gender (b=.053, SE= .261, t(33) = .203, p= .840, 95% CI [-.478, .584], sr2= .00). Not only this, but at odds with our second hypothesis, it was found that a higher depression score was not significantly associated with body dissatisfaction (r(35), p= .093, r2= .078). These findings could suggest that other factors (e.g. other personality traits, stress) may be more important in predicting eating disorder behavior and depression in individuals diagnosed with eating disorders. Future research could help predetermine factors that would help detect the onset of disordered eating and body dissatisfaction.

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