An experimental test of the effect of weight-loss dieting on bulimic pathology: Tipping the scales in a different direction.

Although it is widely accepted that dieting increases the risk for bulimic pathology, this hypothesis has not been tested in a randomized experiment. Accordingly, the authors conducted an experimental test of the dietary restraint model by randomly assigning nonobese women (N=82) to either a 6-week, low-calorie diet or a waitlist control condition. The diet intervention resulted in significant weight loss, confirming that dieting was successfully manipulated. Contrary to the restraint model, dieting resulted in significant decreases in bulimic symptoms relative to the control condition. Results converge with past findings from randomized obesity prevention and treatment trials and provide evidence that dieting does not promote bulimic pathology; rather, effective decreases in caloric intake appear to reduce bulimic symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are dietary restraint scales valid measures of moderate- to long-term dietary restriction? Objective biological and behavioral data suggest not.

Prospective studies indicate that elevated scores on dietary restraint scales predict bulimic symptom onset, but experiments indicate that assignment to dietary restriction interventions reduces bulimic symptoms. One possible explanation for the inconsistent findings is that the dietary restraint scales used in the former studies are not valid measures of dietary restriction. The authors previously found that dietary restraint scales were not inversely correlated with objective measures of short-term caloric intake (E. Stice, M. Fisher, & M. R. Lowe, 2004). In this follow-up report, 3 studies indicated that the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire dietary restraint scale was not correlated with doubly labeled water estimated energy intake over 2-week periods or with observationally measured caloric intake over 3 months. Results from this study and others suggest that dietary restraint scales may not be valid measures of moderate- to long-term dietary restriction and imply the need to reinterpret findings from studies that have used dietary restraint scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of a Weight Maintenance Diet on Bulimic Symptoms in Adolescent Girls: An Experimental Test of the Dietary Restraint Theory.

It is widely accepted that dieting increases the risk for bulimia nervosa, but there have been few experimental tests of this theory. The authors conducted a randomized experiment with adolescent girls (N=188) to examine the effects of a weight maintenance diet on bulimic symptoms. A manipulation check verified that the diet intervention resulted in weight maintenance and significantly reduced the risk for obesity onset and weight gain observed in assessment-only controls. As hypothesized, the diet intervention resulted in significantly greater decreases in bulimic symptoms and negative affect than observed in controls. These experimental findings, which converge with those from a weight loss diet experiment, appear antithetical to dietary restraint theory and suggest instead that dietary restriction curbs bulimic symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Modeling individual differences in perceptual and attentional processes related to bulimic symptoms.

Attentional and perceptual differences between women with high and low levels of bulimic symptoms were studied with techniques adapted from cognitive science. Stimuli were pictures of young women varying in body size and facial affect. A multidimensional scaling analysis showed that the high symptom women were significantly more attentive to information about body size and significantly less attentive to information about affect. In prototype classification tasks, the high-symptom women used significantly more information about body size and significantly less information about affect. There were strong associations between individual differences in attention in the similarity task and decision making in the classification tasks. The study shows the potential utility of cognitive science methods for the study of cognitive factors in psychopathology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk factors for binge eating onset in adolescent girls: A 2-year prospective investigation.

Because little is known about the predictors of binge eating (a risk factor for obesity), a set of putative risk factors for binge eating was investigated in a longitudinal study of adolescent girls. Results verified that binge eating predicted obesity onset. Elevated dieting, pressure to be thin, modeling of eating disturbances, appearance overvaluation, body dissatisfaction, depressive symptoms, emotional eating, body mass, and low self-esteem and social support predicted binge eating onset with 92% accuracy, Classification tree analysis revealed an interaction between appearance overvaluation, body mass, dieting, and depressive symptoms, suggesting qualitatively different pathways to binge eating and identifying subgroups at extreme risk for this outcome. Results support the assertion that these psychosocial and biological factors increase risk for binge eating. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prospective predictors of body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls and boys: A five-year longitudinal study.

This study investigated prospective risk factors for increases in body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls and boys in the Eating Among Teens Project. At the time of first assessment (Time 1), participants were a cohort of early adolescent girls (N=440) and boys (N=366) and a cohort of middle adolescent girls (N=946) and boys (N=764). Participants were followed up 5 years later (Time 2). Potential prospective risk factors examined included body mass index, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, parent dieting environment, peer environment, and psychological factors. Predictors of Time 2 body dissatisfaction were Time 1 body dissatisfaction, body mass index, socioeconomic status, being African American, friend dieting and teasing, self-esteem, and depression. However, the profile of predictors differed across the samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fasting increases risk for onset of binge eating and bulimic pathology: A 5-year prospective study.

Although adolescent girls with elevated dietary restraint scores are at increased risk for future binge eating and bulimic pathology, they do not eat less than those with lower restraint scores. The fact that only a small proportion of individuals with elevated dietary restraint scores develop bulimic pathology suggests that some extreme but rare form of dietary restriction may increase risk for this disturbance. The authors tested the hypothesis that fasting (going without eating for 24 hr for weight control) would be a more potent predictor of binge eating and bulimic pathology onset than dietary restraint scores using data from 496 adolescent girls followed over 5 years. Results confirmed that only 23% of participants with elevated dietary restraint scores reported fasting. Furthermore, fasting generally showed stronger and more consistent predictive relations to future onset of recurrent binge eating and threshold/subthreshold bulimia nervosa over 1- to 5-year follow-up relative to dietary restraint, though the former effects were only significantly stronger than the latter for some comparisons. Results provide preliminary support for the hypothesis that fasting is a stronger risk factor for bulimic pathology than is self-reported dieting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental arousal of achievement motivation in adolescent girls.

2 groups of female high school students (40 achievers and 40 underachievers, matched for IQ) were exposed to 2 experimental conditions (Neutral and Achievement Oriented) and 2 types of pictures (those depicting males and those depicting females). The overall effect of the experimental achievement arsousal conditions for all girls was nonsignificant. However, a highly significant 2nd-order interaction effect was obtained: the achievement motivation scores of achievers increased significantly in response to Achievement Oriented conditions when they produced stories to pictures of females but did not increase in response to pictures of males; by contrast, the achievement motivation scores of underachievers increased significantly in response to Achievement Oriented conditions when they produced stories to pictures of males but did not increase in response to pictures of females. (43 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perfectionism and bulimic symptoms in African American college women: Dimensions of perfectionism and their interactions with perceived weight status.

This study had 2 primary aims: (a) to examine the unique relations between maladaptive and adaptive dimensions of perfectionism and bulimic symptoms and (b) to test an interactive model of perfectionism and perceived weight status for bulimic symptoms in a sample of African American female undergraduates. The sample consisted of 97 women at Time 1 and 70 women at Time 2 about 5 months later, with bulimic symptoms assessed at both time points. Results showed that maladaptive perfectionism, but not adaptive perfectionism, was uniquely related to bulimic symptoms in cross-sectional analyses. Tests of interaction effects indicated that maladaptive perfectionism interacted with perceived weight status to identify elevated bulimic symptoms such that women with high levels of maladaptive perfectionism who felt overweight exhibited the highest levels of bulimic symptoms, both concurrently and prospectively after controlling for Time 1 levels of bulimic symptoms. This study highlights the relevance of maladaptive perfectionism to bulimic symptoms in African American college women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of comorbidity in prevention of adolescent depressive symptoms.

Despite the well-known relevance of comorbidity, few studies have examined the impact of comorbid anxiety or externalizing symptoms on the prevention of depressive symptoms in adolescents. To replicate earlier positive effects of a cognitive-behavioral prevention program of depressive symptoms and to test the hypothesis that the prevention program would be less effective in adolescents with comorbid anxiety and externalizing symptoms, the authors conducted a study involving 301 8th-grade students randomly divided into an intervention group and a nonintervention control group. The randomized design included baseline, postintervention, and 6-month follow-up. The prevention program included 10 sessions held in a regular school setting. The prevention program showed positive effects on depressive symptoms independent of comorbid symptoms. These effects were found mainly with girls independent of their depressive symptoms at baseline, and in part with boys with less severe depressive symptoms at baseline. It is surprising that negative effects of the prevention program on depressive symptoms were found on the depression of boys with more severe depressive symptoms at baseline. The prevention program's low rate of attrition and high recruitment rate support the generalizability of the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of early menarche to depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, and comorbid psychopathology among adolescent girls.

This prospective study tested whether early menarche partially accounts for the increases in depression, eating pathology, substance abuse, and comorbid psychopathology that occur among adolescent girls, with structured interview data from a community sample (N?=?496). Early menarche (prior to 11.6 years) was associated with elevated depression, substance abuse, and "any" disorder but did not confer increased risk for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder. Although there was significant comorbidity across all three classes of pathology, early menarche was associated only with comorbid depression and substance abuse. Results provide partial support for the assertion that early menarche is a general risk factor for psychopathology among adolescent girls but suggest that this risk may not apply to certain disorders and that the effects are modest in size. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Drug abuse risk and protective factors among black urban adolescent girls: A group-randomized trial of computer-delivered mother-daughter intervention.

A group-randomized design tested a mother-daughter intervention in which researchers aimed to increase protective factors in a community sample of Black urban adolescent girls. Girls and their mothers at 2 community agencies were pretested and, by agency, were randomized to either an intervention arm or a control arm. Intervention arm girls and their mothers received a program for improving mother- daughter rapport. Posttest data collected 3 weeks after program delivery revealed that intervention arm mothers and daughters improved more than did control arm mothers and daughters on measures of communication and closeness. At 3-month follow-up, intervention arm mothers, relative to control arm mothers, continued to report better communication with and closeness to their daughters. Girls and mothers in the intervention arm rated the computer program favorably on parameters of enjoyment, comfort, relevance, usefulness of information, improvements to their relationship with one another, and whether they would recommend the computer program to friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood depressive symptoms and adolescent cigarette use: A six-year longitudinal study controlling for peer relations correlates.

Objective: To examine potential pathways between childhood depressive symptoms and adolescent cigarette use, controlling for potential “third variable” causes. Design: Participants included 250 youth (60% girls) who were in Grades 4 to 6 at study outset and in Grades 10 to 12 (M age = 16.78) at a 6-year follow-up. At Time 1, children completed measures of depressive symptoms, as well as peer nominations of peer acceptance, rejection, and aggressive behavior. Main Outcome Measures: Time 2 measures included adolescents’ own and close friends’ cigarette use, depressive symptoms, and externalizing behaviors; parents also reported on adolescent behaviors. Results: Higher levels of childhood depressive symptoms and aggressive behavior were associated longitudinally with cigarette use in adolescence. After controlling for other associations, higher levels of childhood depressive symptoms also were associated with higher levels of friends’ cigarette use in adolescence and higher levels of adolescent depressive symptoms; each of these adolescent outcomes was concurrently associated with cigarette use. Conclusion: Depressive symptoms in childhood may lead to altered developmental trajectories that either directly or indirectly contribute to adolescent outcomes, including cigarette use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk factors for body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls: A longitudinal investigation.

Because few prospective studies have examined predictors of body dissatisfaction--an established risk factor for eating disorders--the authors tested whether a set of sociocultural, biological, interpersonal, and affective factors predicted increases in body dissatisfaction using longitudinal data from adolescent girls (N=496). Elevated adiposity, perceived pressure to be thin, thin-ideal internalization, and social support deficits predicted increases in body dissatisfaction, but early menarche, weight-related teasing, and depression did not. There was evidence of 2 distinct pathways to body dissatisfaction--1 involving pressure to be thin and 1 involving adiposity. Results support the contention that certain sociocultural, biological, and interpersonal factors increase the risk for body dissatisfaction, but suggest that other accepted risk factors are not related to this outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aggression in adolescent girls: Implications for policy, prevention, and treatment.

This review of literature focuses on aggression and adolescent girls. Official crime statistics from Statistics Canada show an increase in violent offenses by girls. This statistic has created considerable interest in a heretofore largely ignored area of childhood maladjustment. Differences regarding the development and expression of aggression with girls in contrast to boys is provided. The authors argue that, in the context of what is acknowledged to be a limited literature, there are important themes for human service-providers and policy-makers to consider in examining assessment, treatment, and prevention strategies for aggressive adolescent girls. Finally, an orientation towards furthering a research agenda in the area of aggression with adolescent girls is provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Maladaptive perfectionism as an intervening variable between psychological control and adolescent depressive symptoms: A three-wave longitudinal study.

Maladaptive perfectionism has been postulated as an intervening variable between psychologically controlling parenting and adolescent internalizing problems. Although this hypothesis has been confirmed in a number of cross-sectional studies, it has not yet been examined from a longitudinal perspective. Findings from this 3-wave longitudinal study show that parental psychological control (as indexed by parent and adolescent reports) at age 15 years predicted increased levels of maladaptive perfectionism 1 year later. Maladaptive perfectionism, in turn, predicted increased levels of adolescent depressive symptoms again 1 year later and acted as a significant intervening variable between parental psychological control at Time 1 and depressive symptoms at Time 3. Multigroup analyses show that the model tested was consistent across gender for paternal psychological control but not for maternal psychological control. Suggestions for future research are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

It takes three: Selection, influence, and de-selection processes of depression in adolescent friendship networks.

The authors of this study tested a selection–influence–de-selection model of depression. This model explains friendship influence processes (i.e., friends' depressive symptoms increase adolescents' depressive symptoms) while controlling for two processes: friendship selection (i.e., selection of friends with similar levels of depressive symptoms) and friendship de-selection (i.e., de-selection of friends with dissimilar levels of depressive symptoms). Further, this study is unique in that these processes were studied both inside and outside the school context. The authors used a social network approach to examine 5 annual measurements of data in a large (N =847) community-based network of adolescents and their friends (M = 14.3 years old at first measurement). Results supported the proposed model: adolescents tend to select friends with similar levels of depression, and friends may increase each other's depressive symptoms as relationships endure. These two processes were most salient outside the school context. At the same time, friendships seemed to be ended more frequently if adolescents' level of depressive symptoms was dissimilar to that of their friends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and the metabolic syndrome in childhood and adulthood: A prospective cohort study.

Objective: To examine the reciprocal associations between depressive symptoms and clinical definitions of the metabolic syndrome in childhood and adulthood. Design: Population-based prospective cohort study of 921 participants (538 women and 383 men) in Finland. The components of the metabolic syndrome were measured in childhood (mean age 12 years) and again in adulthood (mean age 33 years). A revised version of the Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess depressive symptoms at the mean ages of 24 and 33. Main Outcome Measures: Metabolic syndrome defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP), the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance, and the International Diabetes Federation criteria. Results: In women, depressive symptoms were associated with increased risk of the metabolic syndrome in adulthood (odds ratio for NCEP metabolic syndrome per 1 SD increase in depressive symptoms 1.40, 95% confidence interval 1.05-1.85). The metabolic syndrome in childhood, in turn, predicted higher levels of depressive symptoms in adulthood (p = .03). In men, no associations were found between depressive symptoms and the clinical definitions of the metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: The process linking depressive symptoms with the metabolic syndrome may go into both directions and may begin early in life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Home sweet home(s): Parental separations, residential moves, and adjustment problems in low-income adolescent girls.

Associations between histories of family disruption (residential moves and separations from parent figures) and adolescent adjustment (including educational, internalizing, externalizing, and sexual behavior outcomes) were examined in a random sample of 267 African American girls from 3 urban poverty neighborhoods. Higher numbers of residential moves and parental separations significantly predicted greater adolescent adjustment problems after household demographic characteristics were controlled. Adolescents' perceptions of their current relationships and neighborhoods were significantly associated with adolescent adjustment but did not mediate the effects of family disruption. Associations between parental separations and adolescent outcomes were strongest for externalizing problems and were found for both male and female caregivers, for long-standing and more temporary caregivers, and for separations in early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)