The Effects of Stress on Bulimic Symptoms in Undergraduate Women (2011)

Undergraduate: Kathleen Kelly

Faculty Advisor: Anna Bardone-Cone
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

---

The relation between stress and bulimic symptoms is theorized to be due to stress creating negative emotional experiences from which binge eating can provide temporary relief. This study had two main objectives: (1) to examine the prospective relationship between various stressors and bulimic symptoms with and without baseline bulimic symptoms as a covariate and (2) to test whether negative affect mediated the relationship between stress and bulimic symptoms. Participants were 406 undergraduate women who completed weekly questionnaires for twelve consecutive weeks. Participants reported on their levels of stress, bulimic symptoms, depression, and anxiety for the past week, and at week one, participants also reported on their general levels of bulimic symptoms. Regression analyses revealed significant relationships between each of overall stress, academic stress, interpersonal stress, and appearance stress and bulimic symptoms. Overall stress, academic stress, and appearance stress were also each found to predict subsequent increases in bulimic symptoms. Anxiety and depression each significantly mediated the relationships between each of overall stress, academic stress, and appearance stress and bulimic symptoms. Findings support the concept of emotional eaters who eat in response to stress-induced negative affect and highlight the importance of teaching more adaptive coping strategies for dealing with stress in order to reduce the risk of bulimic pathology.