Body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptomatology were examined in bisexual individuals (n=139 women, n=37 men) and compared to lesbian/gay (n=51 women, n=96 men) and heterosexual individuals (n=82 women, n=34 men) in a U.S. online sample. Age, body mass index (BMI), income, and exercise frequency served as covariates. MANCOVA results showed a significant gender by sexual orientation interaction and significant main effects of gender and sexuality. Univariate tests were used to explore multivariate results. ANCOVA results for body dissatisfaction showed a significant gender by sexual orientation interaction. Post-hoc comparisons revealed higher levels of body dissatisfaction among all groups compared to heterosexual men. ANCOVA results for eating disorder symptomatology showed a significant main effect of sexual orientation. Post-hoc comparisons revealed higher levels of eating disorder symptoms among bisexual compared to heterosexual individuals. For bisexual men, gay community involvement, maladaptive social comparison, drive for muscularity, self-esteem, gender role orientation, and body dissatisfaction were explored as predictors of eating disorder symptomatology while controlling for age, BMI, exercise frequency, and income in a hierarchical regression analysis. The same factors, minus body dissatisfaction, were explored as predictors of body dissatisfaction in bisexual men. For bisexual women, similar factors, with the exception of drive for muscularity, were explored. Drive for muscularity predicted body dissatisfaction and exercise frequency predicted eating disorder symptomatology in bisexual men. BMI and self-esteem predicted body dissatisfaction in bisexual women; gay community involvement and body dissatisfaction predicted eating disorder symptomatology.

Existing literature fails to comprehensively identify factors contributing to the comorbid relationship between eating disorder (ED) behaviors and unipolar depression. Maladaptive social comparison, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem are disruptive psychological patterns common to both constructs. It is unclear whether a unique relationship exists between depression and eating disorder behaviors beyond the effects exerted by this negative cognitive triad. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether a unique relationship exists between depression and ED behaviors after controlling for maladaptive social comparison, body dissatisfaction, and low self-esteem. We predict minimal unique variance in ED behaviors will be explained by depression after controlling for this negative cognitive triad.

The purpose of this study is to examine conformity to traditional feminine norms as a predictor of eating disorder (ED) symptomatology. Eight subscales of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory (CFNI) were examined as predictors of ED symptomatology as assessed by the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q). Findings indicate the Thinness subscale of the CFNI predicted significant portions of the variance in ED symptomatology. Contrary to the findings of Mahalik and colleagues (2005), no other CFNI subscales predicted ED symptoms. Implications for the femininity theory of EDs are discussed.

Eugen Zuckermann died on November 24 [1997], the cancer finally accomplished what the Nazis did not. . . . He was a tailor by trade and a scholar by inclination. Neither wealth nor fame ever came his way. He never married. He was short, almost elfin, and his trousers, held high by suspenders, seemed to swallow his body up to his chest. His smile could be magically disarming, but his head was crowded with ghosts and his eyes were pools of sadness. His mother, his sister and a brother had left the world as smoke in the air above [Auschwitz]. (Bearak, 1997, p. A19) In this chapter we report on a perspective on loss that supports the way Eugen Zuckermann lived his life, remembering and telling one's story. We Part of the research reported in this chapter was supported by a Fulbright Research Award for the study of loss among Romanian women to John H. Harvey.

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