Exploring Correlates of Loss of Control Eating in a Nonclinical Sample

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.

Binge-Eating Precursors in Children and Adolescents: Neurodevelopment, and the Potential Contribution of Ultra-Processed Foods

“…In contrast, other studies have suggested that dietary restraint is involved in the development of BED (restraint model) [44][45][46][47], while others have implied that sBED, and possibly BED, originate in long-term hypercaloric food consumption [35]. The literature supporting the former is rather mixed, and results might depend on the evaluated outcome (i.e., bulimia nervosa, BED or sBED), the sample characteristics (i.e., subjects with obesity vs. community samples), the variables studied (i.e., fasting, low-calory diets, regularity of meals), and the evaluation of other concomitant factors (i.e., dieting due to internal motivations related to body dissatisfaction vs. other reasons for dieting) [44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. Once BED is established, however, regular eating and no skipping of meals are two of the most important factors to overcome the disorder [49].…”

Factor structure and psychometric properties of a multicultural Spanish‐language version of the Eating Disorder‐15 in a nonclinical sample of Chilean women

“…With this in mind, Tatham et al (2015) developed a brief measure covering core EDs attitudes (10 items) and behaviors (5 items) over the past week, the Eating Disorder‐15 (ED‐15). Despite being developed to assess early response to treatment, its use in nonclinical (Barbeau et al, 2022; Conceição et al, 2022; Rodrigues et al, 2022) and clinical research (Hibbs et al, 2021; Toro et al, 2022; Wade et al, 2021) has increased over the past years.…”