NCJ Number
149886
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 18 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1994) Pages: 607-615
Date Published
1994
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study examined the relationships among childhood sexual and physical abuse, body image disturbance, and eating disorder symptomatology.
Abstract
Of 670 female college students screened for childhood abuse, 29 sexually abused, 32 physically abused, and 29 nonabused women completed measures of eating disorder symptoms. The study instruments administered to the subjects were the Childhood History Questionnaire, the Body Image Detection Device, the Bulimia Test, the Eating Disorder Inventory, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Contrary to previous reports, this study revealed no evidence that child sexual or physical abuse was associated with the development of body image disturbance. Neither did the results support the hypothesis that child sexual and physical abuse are related to eating disorder symptomatology. The study concludes that therapists cannot assume that sexual or physical abuse is related to body-image disturbance and eating disorders for the entire population of abused women. Rather, these relationships may exist for certain subgroups within this population or they may not exist at all. Study limitations are identified. 1 table and 31 references