title: Social anxiety and associations with eating psychopathology: Mediating effects of fears of evaluation.
abstract: Recent work suggests unique relations among features of social anxiety disorder and eating disorder pathology. Thus, it may be important to determine specific facets of social anxiety that account for the relation between it and eating disorders. Given the similarities in social-evaluative concerns in both sets of symptoms, we hypothesized that fears of both positive and negative evaluation would each independently account for the relationship between social anxiety symptoms and eating pathology among college females (N=167). Results were partially supportive of hypotheses. Fear of negative evaluation independently accounted for a significant portion of the relationship between social anxiety and each domain of eating pathology that was tested, which included Drive for Thinness, Body Dissatisfaction, and Bulimic Symptoms. Body mass index appeared to play a moderating role on the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and body dissatisfaction, but not drive for thinness or bulimia symptoms. Clinical implications including diagnostic and treatment considerations will be discussed.
authors: Center for Evaluation and Treatment of Anxiety, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States.
authors: Andrew R
authors: AR
authors: Menatti
authors: San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, United States.
authors: Lindsey B Hopkins
authors: LB
authors: DeBoer
authors: Center for Evaluation and Treatment of Anxiety, Ohio University, Athens, OH, United States. Electronic address: weeksj@ohio.edu.
authors: Justin W
authors: JW
authors: Weeks
authors: Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States.
authors: Richard G
authors: RG
authors: Heimberg
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D012919:Social Behavior; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body image; Eating disorders; Fear of negative evaluation; Fear of positive evaluation; Social anxiety; Social-evaluative concerns