The stakes of self-worth: Examining contingencies of self-worth to clarify the association between global self-esteem and eating disturbances in college women.

Abstract

The present study tested a hypothesized mediation model in which the seven contingencies of self-worth proposed by Crocker and Wolfe mediate the association between global self-esteem and eating disturbances in college women. This study utilized a sample of 408 college women. Path analysis was used to produce a model in which the association between global self-esteem and eating disturbances was accounted for through contingencies of self-worth. The finalized model indicated that self-worth based on appearance and competition mediated the link between global self-esteem and both drive for thinness and bulimic symptoms. Self-worth based on virtue mediated the link between global self-esteem and bulimic symptoms. The present findings clarify facets of self-worth accounting for the association between global self-esteem and eating disturbances in college women, and point to how self-worth based on one's appearance, or the ability to outdo others, is centrally implicated in this relationship.