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Disordered Eating, Anxiety 7
the length of the interview and to decrease participant burden, only items needed to assess
for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating, and preoccupation with body shape
were included. Items assessing frequency and type of exercise, as well as height and
weight, were left off. Strong internal validity (α=.96) has been found in other studies that
used a streamlined version of this interview (Stice, Fisher, & Martinez, 2004).
The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) was also used to measure the risk
factors of perceived hunger, disinhibition, and dietary restraint (Stunkard & Messick,
1985). In order to reduce participant burden, a 36-question abbreviated version that only
included the true-false items was used. The internal validity on these three scales was
also high (α=.85, α=.91, α=.92, respectively).
Body Dissatisfaction.
Body dissatisfaction was measured using a shortened version of the Satisfaction
and Dissatisfaction with Body Parts Scale (Berscheid, Walster, & Bohrnstedt, 1973). The
scale asked participants to rank their level of satisfaction with eight relevant body parts on
a five-point scale ranging from 1 = extremely dissatisfied to 5 = extremely satisfied. This
adapted form showed strong internal validity (α=.94) and a predictive validity for future
bulimic symptoms onset (Stice et al., 2002).
Negative Affect.
The Positive and Negative Affects Scale (PANAS) was used to measure negative
affect (Watson et al., 1988). The scale asked participants to rank the extent that 24
descriptive items matched their feelings on a five-point scale ranging from 1 = not at all
true to 5 = very true. The internal validity for the positive affect scales and negative
affect scales were α=.91 and α=.87, respectively (Wills et al., 1999).
Anxiety.
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was used to measure general anxiety
(Spielberger et al., 1995). In order to emphasize the trait anxiety scales, only the last 20
items were used; they were adapted to request participants to consider their feelings over
the past three months (for the pre-test), over the past week (for the post-test), and over the
past month (for the follow-up). The scale asked participants to rank the frequency that
they felt 20 descriptive items using a four-point scale with 1 = not at all to 4 = very much
so. The internal validity for the trait anxiety ranged was moderate (α=.65 – α=.86;
Spielberger et al., 1995).
Procedure
Participants were recruited from students taking Psy 301 at the University of
Texas at Austin; for compensation, they received their required experimental credit hours.
Students who responded to questions about dieting, preoccupation with food, and body
dissatisfaction on a pre-screening survey were recruited through a follow-up email.
Participants must have answered “Yes” to all three questions. All other participants who
selected this study as a way to obtain credit hours also completed a similar pre-screening
survey to determine the validity of self-reported eating abnormalities. They needed to
score a 4 or higher on 2 of the 3 questions in order to participate in the study.