Childhood Sexual Abuse, Body Image, and Disordered Eating: A Structural Modeling Analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on previous literature, we proposed and tested a model of the relationships between child sexual abuse (CSA), body image, dieting, and bulimic behavior. The model specified that body image functioned as a mediator between CSA and eating disturbance. Multiple measures of each of the constructs of interest were collected from a sample of 222 college age women, and the data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Both the measurement model and the proposed structural model demonstrated an adequate fit. As with previous research, results support a model in which body image strongly affects dieting behavior, which in turn directly affects bulimic behavior. The results did not appear to support the proposed mediational model involving the hypothesized indirect effect of CSA on eating pathology. There was, however, a small direct relationship between CSA and bulimic behavior and a moderate relationship between CSA and posttraumatic symptomatology.