Abstract
ObjectiveLoss of control (LOC) eating has been directly related to the core aspects of the psychopathology of eating disorders and to different dimensions of emotion and behavior regulation and self-criticism. This study investigates a model representing the interplay between these dimensions to understand LOC eating among a nonclinical sample.MethodsA total of 341 participants, recruited in a college campus (mean age 23.21, SD = 6.02), completed a set of self-report measures assessing LOC eating, weight suppression, psychopathology of eating disorders, depression, negative urgency, emotion regulation difficulties, and self-criticism. Path analysis modeling tested a hypothesized model with 3 paths for LOC eating as follows: (1) psychopathology of eating disorders; (2) emotion and behavior regulation; and (3) interplay between these paths.ResultsWe found goodness-of-fit indexes to our data: χ2 = 17.11, df = 10, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.99, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.98, Root Mean Square Error Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.045, Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) = 0.041, suggesting that: (1) participants with higher weight suppression showed higher degrees of the psychopathology of eating disorders, which was linked to higher levels of LOC eating; (2) self-criticism was a mediator between emotion regulation and depression/negative urgency; (3) self-criticism was a mediator between emotion regulation and disorder eating, which was significantly associated with LOC eating via increased negative urgency.ConclusionOur model shows that LOC eating occurs for individuals with the psychopathology of higher eating disorders who experience depressive symptoms and act rashly under distress for their inability to cope adequately with negative feelings of self-devaluation. These findings point to the importance of negative self-evaluations and feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness to understand LOC eating among college students.
Highlights
Loss of control (LOC) eating is described as the subjective perception of being compelled to eat or unable to resist or stop eating
LOC eating is conceptualized as directly related to the core aspects of the psychopathology of eating disorders, the importance and concerns over eating and body weight/shape (Fairburn et al, 2003), other variables have been investigated to explain the relationship between core psychopathology of eating disorders and LOC eating behavior
We found that emotion regulation (Path 2) was only indirectly associated with LOC eating through the mediation of self-criticism (Path 2), which, in turn, is associated with LOC eating through the mediation of psychopathology of eating disorders (Path 1)
Summary
Loss of control (LOC) eating is described as the subjective perception of being compelled to eat or unable to resist or stop eating. LOC eating has been considered a core symptom of several eating disorders, including binge-eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, and anorexia nervosa-binge/purge subtype (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). The experience of LOC eating and the consumption of an unambiguously large quantity of food in a discrete period of time are considered the two hallmark features in the definition of binge eating of the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Cumulative evidence suggests that the experience of LOC eating, rather than episode size, is the most salient indicator of the psychopathology of eating disorders and psychological distress in clinical and nonclinical samples of both in the youths (Schlüter et al, 2016; Byrne et al, 2019) and adults (Mond et al, 2010; Fitzsimmons-Craft et al, 2014; Goldschmidt, 2017). LOC eating is conceptualized as directly related to the core aspects of the psychopathology of eating disorders, the importance and concerns over eating and body weight/shape (Fairburn et al, 2003), other variables have been investigated to explain the relationship between core psychopathology of eating disorders and LOC eating behavior
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