For humans, successful drinking is a necessity early in life. In fact, swallowing can be observed with ultrasound at approximately the 16th week of pregnancy. The fetus "drinks" amniotic fluid as a way to filter fetal debris and to help maintain the amniotic fluid level for its mother. All this "swallowing practice" in utero enables the fetus to…

Involuntary images and visual memories are prominent in many types of psychopathology. Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder, other anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, and psychosis frequently report repeated visual intrusions corresponding to a small number of real or imaginary events, usually extremely vivid, detailed, and…

Given the recent focus on eating disorders in children, it is imperative that counselors consider eating concerns that affect children of all racial and ethnic groups and hence are effective in working with this population. The author discusses risk factors that potentially contribute to eating disorders in African American girls given their…

This study tested five proposed models of the relationship of negative affect and peer factors in early adolescent body dissatisfaction, dieting, and bulimic behaviors. A large community sample of girls in early adolescence was assessed via questionnaire (X[overbar] age = 12.3 years). Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that negative…

Initial research suggested that only European American women developed eating disorders (Garner, 1993), yet recent studies have shown that African American women do experience them (e.g., Lester & Petrie, 1998b; Mulholland & Mintz, 2001) and also may be negatively affected by similar sociocultural variables. In this study, we examined a…

Feeding problems are common problems seen in premature infants following their discharge from the NICU. However, the prevalence of feeding issues and failure to thrive among preterm infants in Taiwan is uncertain. All former studies of prevalence and identifications of feeding issues were from western countries. Those findings are therefore not…

This study aimed to explore the role of depression as a moderator of sociocultural influences on eating disorder symptoms. A sample of 509 adolescents (56% female) completed self-report questionnaires assessing depression, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms and sociocultural influences on appearance from family, peers and…

One community sample (N = 607) of youths generated self-reported responses to body dissatisfaction, from which the Adolescent Responses to Body Dissatisfaction (ARBD) inventory was constructed. A 2nd, similar sample (N = 830) completed this measure as well as measures of coping, body dissatisfaction, body mass index, depressive symptoms, and…

In Overeaters Anonymous (OA), the 12-step self-help program for compulsive overeaters, binge eating is regarded as a physical, spiritual, and emotional disorder. Consequently, the program proposes recovery through the adoption of a lifestyle that leads to physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being. A qualitative phenomenological study that…

This study examined whether the gender-related discourses of self-objectification, self-silencing, and anger suppression mediated the association between internalization of the thin-body ideal and body dissatisfaction and eating pathology. We employed a cross-sectional design to study both university (n = 140) and community (n = 76) samples of…

In most assessment instruments, distinct items are designed to measure a trait, and the sum score of these items serves as an approximation of an individual's trait score. In interpreting group differences with respect to sum scores, the instrument should measure the same underlying trait across groups (e.g., male/female, young/old). Differences…

A relative large number of women on college campuses report experiencing eating afflictions. About 61% of college women indicated that they either occasionally or regularly used extreme measures to control their weight (Mintz & Betz, 1988). No clear consensus on the relative prevalence of eating disorder symptoms across ethnic groups has…

Various components of body image were measured to assess body image disturbances in patients with obesity. To overcome limitations of previous studies, a photo distortion technique and a biological motion distortion device were included to assess static and dynamic aspects of body image. Questionnaires assessed cognitive-affective aspects, bodily…

A qualitative, longitudinal, phenomenological case study explored how a gifted female experienced various life events and aspects of development during adolescence and young adulthood (ages 15-30 years), particularly as related to multiple traumatic experiences, which were revealed late in the first year of the study. Additional experiences, well…

Emotional eating occurs frequently in individuals with eating disorders and is an overlooked factor within addictions research. The present study identified the relationship between emotional eating, substance use, and eating disorders, and assessed the usefulness of the Emotional Eating Scale (EES) for individuals with concurrent eating disorders…