title: Starving for a drink: Sexual objectification is associated with food-restricted alcohol consumption among college women, but not among men.
abstract: Interpersonal sexual objectification, or being treated as an object by others, is linked to poorer body image and, in turn, engagement in weight management behaviors that promote conformity to unrealistic appearance standards while simultaneously undermining health. Although these associations emerge consistently among women, the evidence has been less clear among men. The present study introduced a novel weight control behavior, food-restricted alcohol consumption (i.e., limiting food intake prior to alcohol consumption), and examined whether sexual objectification was associated with this phenomenon and whether this association differed among women and men. During the fall of 2012 and the spring of 2013, 410 undergraduates reported how often they felt objectified by others and restricted what they ate before drinking alcohol in the past month. Controlling for past drinking, sexual objectification was significantly and positively associated with food-restricted alcohol consumption for women; however, sexual objectification was unrelated to food-restricted alcohol consumption for men. The results suggest that sexual objectification might operate differently across the sexes and particularly be related to this specific health-risk behavior among women.
authors.affiliation: a Health Behavior Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research , Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , Bethesda , Maryland , USA.|b Department of Psychology , George Washington University , Washington , DC , USA.
authors.forename: Miriam H
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7133-8805
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , George Washington University , Washington , DC , USA.
authors.forename: Caroline C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , George Washington University , Washington , DC , USA.|c Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research , University of Florida , Gainesville , Florida , USA.
authors.forename: Alyssa N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Zucker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012928:Social Desirability; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities
keywords: Alcohol; drunkorexia; food-restricted alcohol consumption; gender differences; psychosocial; weight