A Comparison of sex role orientation between women with bulimia and normal controls

Abstract

A group of women (n = 38) who met the DSM-III critieria for bulimia and a group of normal control women (n = 26) between the ages of 18–34 were administered the revised version of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (1981) to test the hypothesis that bulimic women are “hyperfeminine” in their sex-role orientation. Both the original and the median split method of scoring the data were employed. The hypothesis was not supported: normal controls scored higher than bulimics on the femininity scale. The findings from both scoring methods reflect a tendency for the bulimic women to systematically score lower than the controls on all sex-typed items resulting in significantly more bulimics in the “undifferentiated” category. This scoring pattern can be understood as an indication of low self-esteem or as a less well-defined sense of self. It was hypothesized that both possibilities would increase these young women's susceptibility to developing bulimic symptoms.