Substance Abuse, Eating Pathology and Body Objectification

1
Substance Abuse, Eating Pathology and Body
Objectification

• INTRODUCTION
• Addictive behaviors often coexist in many
  individuals, however little is known about why
  some individuals exhibit vulnerability to these
  behaviors and the mechanisms involved.
• Substance Abuse and Eating Pathology
• Concerns over the high rate of eating disorders
  in our society (10 of women aged 15-30) (Dunn et
  al. 2001) are exacerbated by co morbidity with
  other destructive behaviors such as alcohol and
  substance abuse.
• Lifetime prevalence rates of substance use
  disorders have been reported at 12-18 in
  Anorexics and 30-70 in Bulimics compared to an
  18 lifetime prevalence in community women
  (Pearlstein, 2002).
• Body Objectification
• Body objectification is an underlying construct
  that has been widely studied in relation to
  eating disorders, but its association with
  alcohol, nicotine and drug use is unknown.
• Body objectification occurs when an individual is
  surrounded by pressures related to weight and
  subsequently internalizes this thin- ideal
  (Fredrickson Roberts, 1997). As a result, the
  body is viewed as an object accompanied by body
  image disturbances, anxiety and shame, and is a
  strong predictor of eating pathology (Fredrickson
  Roberts, 1997).
• Hypothesis
• Eating pathology has been linked to both body
  objectification and substance abuse, therefore it
  is hypothesized that those individuals who binge
  eat or exhibit bulimic bingeing behaviors will
  also be more inclined to use alcohol and nicotine
  and that body objectification is a correlate of
  both behaviors .
• METHOD
• One hundred and four students from Bates College
  completed surveys assessing eating behaviors,
  alcohol, drug and nicotine consumption, and body
  objectification, depression and self esteem.
• The students completed The Shorter PROMIS
  Questionnaire, The Eating Disorders Diagnostic
  Scale (EDDS), The Self Objectification
  Questionnaire, The Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale,
  The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression
  Scale, and an alcohol use questionnaire assessing
  their weekly alcohol intake.

• RESULTS
• Stepwise multiple regression was used to predict
  bingeing, alcohol use, drug use, and nicotine use
  in four models.
• Drugs After controlling for Gender, BMI, eating
  concerns (as measured by the EDDS total), and
  depression, which did not significantly add to
  the model, objectification was still predictive
  of drug use. Objectification was a significant
  predictor independent of EDDS score and made a
  unique contribution to drug use, and therefore
  objectification cannot explain the relationship
  between EDDS score and drug use. On the whole,
  the model accounted for a significant portion of
  the variance (R²0.14, F3.05 , p 0.01).
• Nicotine After controlling for gender, weight and
  EDDS total, objectification accounted for a
  significant portion of the variance (t 0.03,
  plt.05) in predicting nicotine use scores
  (PROMIS). Those who used more nicotine
  objectified more, and this relationship existed
  even when eating concerns were controlled for,
  suggesting that objectification may be a
  mediating variable between EDDS and Nicotine (r
  .300, plt.001), and explain the EDDS and nicotine
  relationship.
• Alcohol Multiple regression models revealed that
  EDDS and gender significantly predicted alcohol
  use however, objectification did not make a
  significant contribution after controlling for
  gender and eating issues.
• DISCUSSION
• The hypothesis was partially supported after
  controlling for EDDS score, objectification still
  makes a unique contribution to drug and nicotine
  use, but not alcohol. Additionally, it was found
  that objectification may mediate the relationship
  between EDDS score and nicotine use, which is a
  unique contribution to this literature.
• An explanation for the presence of high drug and
  nicotine use in individuals who objectify, but
  not high alcohol use, may be related to weight
  control. Previous studies support the idea that
  smoking is correlated with body dissatisfaction
  and dieting and is believed to control weight
  (Stice Shaw, 2003). Both drug and nicotine
  behaviors can control weight and suppress
  appetite, and may therefore be a response to body
  image concerns related to objectification.
• Another finding revealed that only alcohol use
  was related to bingeing behaviors. This suggests
  that impulse control may play a role linking both
  alcohol and bingeing.
• These results suggest future research to
  determine the mechanism linking alcohol and
  bingeing and to further examine objectification
  in relation to drug and nicotine use in order to
  create more accurate models for predicting and
  treating these destructive behaviors.

Joanna Dove, Bates College
RESULTS