Childhood sexual and physical abuse in Spanish female undergraduates
Objective: To assess the relationship between childhood sexual and physical abuse, and key attitudinal and behavioral aspects of eating disorders. Method: Participants included 708 female undergraduates in a Spanish public university, aged from 18 to 30. Abuse was measured by the Traumatic Life Even...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2012 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ddd.uab.cat:318275 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://ddd.uab.cat/record/318275 https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1002/erv.1086 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Childhood physical abuse Childhood sexual abuse Eating disorders Female undergraduates |
| Sumario: | Objective: To assess the relationship between childhood sexual and physical abuse, and key attitudinal and behavioral aspects of eating disorders. Method: Participants included 708 female undergraduates in a Spanish public university, aged from 18 to 30. Abuse was measured by the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ), and eating disorders by the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire EDE-Q. Results: 14.3% of the sample had suffered childhood sexual abuse, and 3.8% childhood physical abuse. With respect to eating disorder attitudinal features, we observed an increased Weight Concern score among childhood sexual abuse survivors. No association was found between this kind of abuse and disordered eating behaviors, after adjusting for depression, anxiety, self-esteem, body mass index, age and socioeconomic status. An inverse relationship was found between childhood physical abuse and eating disorder attitudes measured by EDE-Q (Restraint, Weight Concern, Shape Concern and the Overall score), whereas no association was found with the behavioral aspects of eating disturbances. Discussion: After controlling for different risk factors, childhood sexual abuse appears to be related to an increased Weight Concern, whilst other eating disorder attitudinal features and behaviors do not seem to be related to childhood abuse. The inverse relationship found is discussed. |
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