Honors Program Theses

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Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Elizabeth Lefler, Honors Thesis Advisor, Psychology Department

Keywords

Eating disorders; Stress (Psychology); Anxiety; Women college students;

Abstract

Eating disorders are serious mental illnesses which can impact any individual. Although they can negatively affect anyone, they disproportionately affect young women. The same is true for individuals with disordered eating. Disordered eating is more common than clinical eating disorders. The term disordered eating refers to subclinical eating disturbances. Past research has demonstrated a relation between disordered eating, stress, and anxiety. The current study expands upon this by examining these variables in first-year college-enrolled women. Participants were n=99 first-year college women who filled out the DASS-21, the EDE-Q, and a demographics questionnaire. Based on previous results, it was hypothesized that there would be a significant positive correlation between disordered eating and stress. It was also hypothesized that there would be a significant positive correlation between disordered eating and anxiety. Hypothesis one was supported, with a positive, significant correlation between disordered eating and stress, but hypothesis two was not supported. Additional analyses found that the DASS-21 stress subscale was significantly correlated with four out of the five subscales from the EDE-Q, whereas the DASS-21 anxiety subscale was only significantly correlated with one of five. Results from the current study indicate that interventions should be implemented on college campuses, including mindfulness and nutrition education programs, to target women with symptoms of stress and disordered eating.

Year of Submission

2019

Department

Department of Psychology

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

5-2019

Object Description

1 PDF file (36 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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