Abstract
Feelings of social safeness and connectedness have been associated with adaptive emotion regulation processes and well-being indicators. Further, literature has demonstrated that interpersonal experiences play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of body and eating psychopathology. However, the study of the role of social variables and emotion regulation processes in the engagement in inflexible eating rules and eating psychopathology is still in its early stages. The current study aims to fill some gaps within the literature and explore the mediator role of body appreciation and inflexible eating rules in the link between social safeness and disordered eating. Participants were 253 women, aged between 18 and 50 years old, who completed a series of online self-report measures. Results from the tested path analysis model showed that social safeness holds a significant effect on eating psychopathology, through the mechanisms of body appreciation and inflexible eating rules. Also, results suggested that women who present higher levels of social safeness tend to present a more positive and respectful attitude towards their body and decreased adoption of inflexible eating rules, which seem to explain lower levels of disordered eating behaviours. These findings seem to present empirical support for the development of intervention programs that promote a positive, affectionate and healthy relationship with one’s body image, in order to prevent the inflexible adherence to eating rules and disordered eating behaviours.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gilbert P (2010) Compassion focused therapy: distinctive features. Routledge, London
Gilbert P, McEwan K, Mitra R, Richter A, Franks L, Mills A, Bellew R, Gale C (2009) An exploration of different types of positive affect in students and in patients with bipolar disorders. Clin Neuropsychiatry 6(4):135–143
Richter A, Gilbert P, McEwan K (2009) Development of an early memories of warmth and safeness scale and its relationship to psychopathology. Psychol Psychother 82:171–184. doi:10.1348/147608308X395213
Gilbert P (2005) Compassion and cruelty: a biopsychosocial approach. In: Gilbert P (ed) Compassion: conceptualisation, research and use in psychotherapy. Routledge, London, pp 9–74
Gilbert P, McEwan K, Mitra R, Franks L, Richter A, Rockliff H (2008) Feeling safe and content: A specific affect regulation system? Relationship to depression, anxiety, stress, and self-criticism. J Posit Psychol 3(3):182–191. doi:10.1080/17439760801999461
Kelly A, Zuroff D, Leybman M, Gilbert P (2012) Social safeness, received social support, and maladjustment: testing a tripartite model of affect regulation. Cognit Ther Res 36(6):815–826. doi:10.1007/s10608-011-9432-5
Goss K, Gilbert P (2002) Eating disorders, shame and pride: a cognitive-behavioural functional analysis. In: Gilbert P, Miles J (eds) Body shame: Conceptualization, research and treatment. Brunner-Routledge, Hove, pp 219–255
Pinto-Gouveia J, Ferreira C, Duarte C (2014) Thinness in the pursuit for social safeness: an integrative model of social rank mentality to explain eating psychopathology. Clin Psychol Psychother 21(2):154–165. doi:10.1002/cpp.1820
Bellew R, Gilbert P, Mills A, McEwan K, Gale C (2006) Eating attitudes and striving to avoid inferiority. Eat Disord 14(4):313–322. doi:10.1080/10640260600796242
Ferreira C, Pinto-Gouveia J, Duarte C (2013) Physical appearance as a measure of social ranking: the role of a new scale to understand the relationship between weight and dieting. Clin Psychol Psychother 20(1):55–66. doi:10.1002/cpp.769
Duarte C, Ferreira C, Pinto-Gouveia J (2016) At the core of eating disorders: overvaluation, social rank, self-criticism and shame in anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder. Compr Psychiatry 66:123–131. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2016.01.003
Baumeister R, Leary M (1995) The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychol Bull 117(3):497–529. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497
Choenarom C, Williams R, Hagerty B (2005) The role of sense of belonging and social support on stress and depression in individuals with depression. Arch Psychiatr Nurs 19(1):18–29. doi:10.1016/j.apnu.2004.11.003
Gilbert P (2007) The evolution of shame as a marker for relationship security: a biopsychosocial approach. In: Tracy J, Robin R, Tangney J (eds) The self-conscious emotions: theory and research. Guilford, New York, pp 283–309
Allan S, Gilbert P (1995) A social comparison rating scale: psychometric properties and relationship to psychopathology. Personal Individ Differ 19:293–299. doi:10.1016/0191-8869(95)00086-L
Gatward N (2007) Anorexia nervosa: an evolutionary puzzle. Eur Eat Disord Rev 15:1–12. doi:10.1002/erv.718
Garner M, Garfinkel P, Schwartz D, Thompson M (1980) Cultural expectations of thinness in women. Psychol Rep 47(2):483–491. doi:10.2466/pr0.1980.47.2.483
Sypeck M, Gray J, Etu S, Ahrens A, Mosimann J, Wiseman C (2006) Cultural representations of thinness in women, redux: playboy magazine’s depictions of beauty from 1979 to 1999. Body Image 3:229–235. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2006.07.001
Buote V, Wilson A, Strahan E, Gazzola S, Papps F (2011) Setting the bar: sociocultural norms for women’s and men’s ideal appearance in real-world contexts. Body Image 8(4):322–334. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2011.06.002
Brown A, Parman K, Rudat D, Craighead L (2012) Disordered eating, perfectionism, and food rules. Eat Behav 13(3):47–353. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2012.05.011
Goss K, Allan S (2009) Shame, pride and eating disorders. Clin Psychol Psychother 16(4):303–316. doi:10.1002/cpp.627
Holmes M, Fuller-Tyszkiewicz M, Skouteris H, Broadbent J (2015) Understanding the link between body image and binge eating: a model comparison approach. Eat Weight Disord 20(1):81–89. doi:10.1007/s40519-014-0141-4
Ferreira C, Trindade IA, Martinho A (2016) Explaining rigid dieting in normal-weight women: the key role of body image inflexibility. Eat Weight Disord 21(1):49–51. doi:10.1007/s40519-015-0188-x
Duarte C, Ferreira C, Trindade A, Pinto-Gouveia J (2015) Normative body dissatisfaction and eating psychopathology in teenage girls: the impact of inflexible eating rules. Eat Weight Disord 21(1):41–48. doi:10.1007/s40519-015-0212-1
Mann T, Ward A (2001) Forbidden fruit: does thinking about a prohibited food lead to its consumption? Int J Eat Disord 29(3):319–327. doi:10.1002/eat.1025
Stice E, Marti C, Durant S (2011) Risk factors for onset of eating disorders: evidence of multiple risk pathways from an 8-year prospective study. Behav Res Ther 49(10):622–627. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2011.06.009
Kelly AC, Vimalakanthan K, Carter JC (2014) Understanding the roles of self-esteem, self-compassion, and fear of self-compassion in eating disorder pathology: an examination of female students and eating disorder patients. Eat Behav 15(3):388–391. doi:10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.04.008
Taylor M, Daiss S, Krietsch K (2015) Associations among self-compassion, mindful eating, eating disorder symptomatology, and body mass index in college students. Transl Issues Psychol Sci 1(3):229–238. doi:10.1037/tps0000035
Homan KJ, Tylka TL (2015) Self-compassion moderates body comparison and appearance self-worth’s inverse relationships with body appreciation. Body Image 15:1–7. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2015.04.007
Avalos L, Tylka TL, Wood-Barcalow N (2005) The Body Appreciation Scale: development and psychometric evaluation. Body Image 2(3):285–297. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.06.002
Tylka T, Wood-Barcalow N (2015) The Body Appreciation Scale-2: item refinement and psychometric evaluation. Body Image 12:53–67. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.09.006
Wood-Barcalow N, Tylka T, Augustus-Horvath C (2010) But I like my body: positive body image characteristics and a holistic model for young adult women. Body Image 7:106–116. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2010.01.001
Poínhos R, Franchini B, Afonso C, Correia F, Teixeira VH, Moreira P, Durão C, Pinho O, Silva D, Lima Reis JP, Veríssimo T, de Almeida MDV (2009) Alimentação e estilos de vida da população Portuguesa: metodologia e resultados preliminares [Alimentation and life styles of the Portuguese population: methodology and preliminary results]. Alimentação Humana 15(3):43–60
Marta-Simões J, Mendes L, Trindade I, Ferreira C.(2016) Validation of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 for Portuguese women. Poster presented at the 3rd IPLeiria’s International Health Congress, Leiria
Duarte C, Ferreira C, Trindade I, Pinto-Gouveia J. (2015) The backlash of inflexible eating rules: development and validation of a new measure of eating-related inflexibility. Poster session presented at the meeting of the 45th EABCT Congress, Jerusalem, Israel
Fairburn C, Beglin S (1994) Assessment of eating disorders: interview or self-report questionnaire?. Int J Eat Disord 16:363–370. doi:10.1002/1098-108X(199412)16:4<363::AID-EAT2260160405>3.0.CO;2-#
Machado P, Martins C, Vaz A, Conceição E, Bastos A, Gonçalves S (2014) Eating disorder examination questionnaire: psychometric properties and norms for the Portuguese population. Eur Eat Disord Rev 22(6):448–453. doi:10.1002/erv.2318
Cooper Z, Cooper P, Fairburn C (1989) The validity of the eating disorder examination and its subscales. Br J Psychiatry 154(6):807–812. doi:10.1192/bjp.154.6.807
Cohen J, Cohen P, West S, Aiken L (2003) Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. 3rd edn. Erlbaum, Hillsdale
Arbuckle J (2006) Amos (Version 7.0) [Computer program]. SPSS, Chicago
Hair JF, Anderson RE, Tatham RL, Black WC (1998) Multivariate data analysis, 5th edn. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River
Hooper D, Coughlan J, Mullen M (2008) Structural equation modelling: guidelines for determining model fit. Electron J Bus Res Methods 6(1):53–60
Kline RB (2005) Principles and practice of structural equation modeling, 2nd edn. The Guilford Press, New York
Field A (2004) Discovering statistics using SPSS, 3rd edn. Sage Publications, London
Striegel-Moore RH, Rosselli F, Perrin N, DeBar L, Wilson GT, May A, Kraemer HC (2009) Gender difference in the prevalence of eating disorder symptoms. Int J Eat Disord 42(5):471–474. doi:10.1002/eat.20625
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of interest
The authors of this manuscript declare no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pinto, C., Ferreira, C., Mendes, A.L. et al. Social safeness and disordered eating: Exploring underlying mechanisms of body appreciation and inflexible eating. Eat Weight Disord 22, 303–309 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-017-0384-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-017-0384-y