Emotion regulation training to reduce problematic dietary restriction: An experimental analysis.
Evidence suggests that emotion regulation may be a process relevant to problematic dietary restriction. However, emotion regulation has not been evaluated as an intervention target across a range of restriction severity. This study utilized an experimental design to examine whether targeting emotion regulation reduced problematic dietary restriction. Within a self-identified restrictive sample (n = 72), the effects of an emotion regulation condition (i.e., emotion regulation training) were compared to those of a control condition (i.e., nutrition information training) on dietary restriction indices (i.e., effort to reduce intake on a progressive ratio task, work towards an alternate reinforcer on a progressive ratio task, intake by dietary recall) following a stressor. Exploratory analyses of potential moderators (i.e., restraint, BMI, binge eating and purging status, emotion regulation difficulties) were conducted to examine whether these factors affected the impact of training on dietary restriction. No significant main effects of condition were detected on any outcome measure. However, results were moderated by BMI status. Participants with lower BMIs exerted less effort towards dietary restriction following the emotion regulation condition versus the control condition (p = 0.02). Results suggest that targeting emotion regulation may help to reduce problematic dietary restriction among lower weight individuals.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, United States; Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United States. Electronic address: afhaynos@umn.edu.
Ann F
AF
Haynos
Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United States.
Bailey
B
Hill
Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, United States.
Alan E
AE
Fruzzetti
D000328:Adult; D032763:Behavior Control / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002032:Bulimia / Q000523:psychology*; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D003710:Demography; D004032:Diet / Q000523:psychology*; D004493:Education / Q000379:methods*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D011380:Programmed Instructions as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Dietary restriction; Eating disorder anorexia nervosa; Emotion regulation