Guilt and hostility as coexisting characteristics of bulimia nervosa

Abstract

Bulimia nervosa has recently emerged as a major mental health problem. Bulimics, usually women, suffer episodes of uncontrollable eating following by purging and/or vomiting behaviours to rid themselves of the food. Previous work has examined the role of hostility in binge-purge behaviour, and clinical observation has noted the presence of strong guilt feelings. Most studies of hostility have used the Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire. Very little work has been done on the role of guilt in bulimia. Studies of both guilt and hostility in bulimia were absent. This study used the Buss-Durkee Inventory (1957) to compare a clinical sample of bulimic women (n = 17) with nonbulimic female students (n = 20) on guilt and overt and covert hostility. As predicted, bulimics scored significantly higher than students on guilt, one-tailed t(35) = 7.17, p < .05, and covert hostility, one-tailed t(34) = 5.23, p < .05, but did not differ on overt hostility. A distinctive pattern of associations between measures of guilt, covert hostility, and eating behaviours was found for the bulimic women. These results suggested that women with high guilt and covert hostility might be more susceptible to bulimia than women who were less guilty or hostile. Longitudinal studies examining these variables throughout the teenage and young adulthood years would clarify the roles of guilt and covert hostility as possible etiological factors for bulimia.