Does fat talk affect relationship and sexual satisfaction?: Adults' perceptions of fat talk in a fictional romantic relationship.

Little is known about how fat talk - a verbal expression of body image concerns - functions within romantic relationships. This study used vignettes about a fictional couple to examine how varied levels of a woman's fat talk were perceived by participants as affecting a fictional couple's relationship and sexual satisfaction. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and included 239 heterosexual people (127 men, 112 women) with long-term relationship experience. Using a 3 (Level of Body Talk: Excessive vs. Minimal Fat Talk vs. Self-Accepting Talk) × 2 (Participant Gender: Male vs. Female) × 2 (Perspective: Husband vs. Wife) between-subjects design, participants read a vignette where the target woman used varying levels of body talk when speaking with her partner. Afterwards, participants completed a series of questionnaires to report on their perceptions of the couple's relationship and sexual satisfaction. Supporting hypotheses, results indicated that participants in the Excessive Fat Talk condition perceived lower relationship and sexual satisfaction levels than the Minimal Fat Talk and Self-Accepting Body Talk conditions. No differences emerged between those exposed to the Self-Accepting and Minimal Fat Talk vignette dialog. Male participants reported lower perceived relationship quality and sexual satisfaction than women participants. Research in this area is in its infancy, and more is needed (especially with actual couples) to better understand how fat talk, as a behavioral function of poor body image, impacts relationship functioning.

A multidimensional approach to understanding the potential risk factors and covariates of adult picky eating.

OBJECTIVE: Adult picky eating (PE) has received increased attention in the eating behavior literature due to its important association with adult avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). The current study tested a model of potential risk factors of adult PE behavior, including perceived early parental feeding practices. An exploratory model was also utilized to understand associations with different aspects of adult PE behaviors. METHODS: A sample of 1339 US adults recruited through Amazon's MTurk completed an online survey that included the recently developed Adult Picky Eating Questionnaire (APEQ), retrospective reports of parental feeding practices, and other measures of eating behavior and demographic variables. A structural equation modeling procedure tested a series of regression models that included BMI and disordered eating behaviors as covariates. RESULTS: SEM modeling indicated that retrospective reports of greater parental pressure to eat, higher disgust sensitivity, lower PE age of onset, and experiencing an aversive food event were associated with general adult PE behavior. Results also indicated parental encouragement of healthy eating may be a protective factor, and that men endorsed higher levels of adult PE. Exploratory analyses indicated that cross-sectional predictors and covariates were differentially related to specific aspects of PE as measured by the APEQ subscales. CONCLUSIONS: Early experiences, including parental approaches to feeding, appear to be potential risk factors of PE behavior in adults. A nuanced understanding of adult PE is important for the prevention and treatment of severe PE behaviors, related psychosocial impairment, and ARFID.

Everyone else is doing it (I think): The power of perception in fat talk.

Fat talk (FT) involves critiquing one's own appearance in social conversations. Although peers are known to prompt FT behavior, there has been little exploration of the influence of mothers and research has not distinguished between self-reported FT and perceptions of FT. This study addresses this research gap by investigating the relationships between participants' FT and corresponding FT of both self-reported and perceived FT of their mothers and friends. A sample of 120 undergraduate women, along with their mothers and friends, reported their FT behavior. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that friend-reported (but not mother-reported) FT and the daughters' perceived FT of both friends and mothers were significant predictors of daughter FT. However, daughters' perceptions of their friends' and mothers' FT predicted a significantly larger portion of variance than self-reported FT of friends and mothers. These results are important to consider when examining potential influences on the development of FT behavior.

Measuring adult picky eating: The development of a multidimensional self-report instrument.

A brief multidimensional measure of adult picky eating (PE) behavior was developed using a large U.S. adult sample. In addition, the study explored associations between specific aspects of adult PE behavior and psychosocial impairment in effort to support the inclusion of adults in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition (DSM-5) avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). The study included 3 phases of qualitative and quantitative data collection. Participants were 1,663 U.S. adults who completed online surveys. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to develop PE subscales. Associations among the PE subscales and measures of psychosocial impairment were examined. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported a 16-item 4-factor model of adult PE that included subscales of meal presentation, food variety, meal disengagement, and taste aversion. The measure also demonstrated convergence with previous measures of PE. The meal disengagement and meal presentation subscales demonstrated significant associations with social eating anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, eating related quality of life (QOL), and psychological flexibility. Meal disengagement alone was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. The Adult Picky Eating Questionnaire (APEQ) demonstrated sound psychometric properties and may be used to further investigate adult PE behavior. The relationships between adult PE and psychological impairment, particularly social anxiety, support the inclusion of ARFID in the DSM-5. (PsycINFO Database Record

Understanding and Treating Women's Body Image and Eating Disorders.

This article provides an overview of the etiology of eating disorders, screening recommendations, and evidence-based treatment options. These disorders are a noteworthy concern among girls and women in the United States, especially given the resulting medical comorbidities and high mortality rates.

Psychological health and academic success in rural Appalachian adolescents exposed to physical and sexual interpersonal violence.

Interpersonal violence (IPV) in adolescence is a serious public health concern and may have lasting behavioral effects and implications for adult relationships. Adolescents from 2 rural Appalachian high schools in 2011/2012 were surveyed using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance (YRBS) survey, which assessed (a) physical IPV within a dating relationship, (b) sexual IPV (defined as forced sex/rape), and (c) those who experienced both. We present baseline rates of each form of IPV for these rural male and female adolescents and assessed the strength and statistical significance of these associations between physical and sexual IPV and other risk factors using χ2 tests and relative risk ratios. Results suggested that each form of IPV was associated with greater risk for depression and suicidal behaviors, substance use, risky sexual behaviors for both sexes, and lower academic grades for females. Relative risk ratios tended to be more robust and statistically significant for females compared with males on most risk behaviors. Furthermore, victimization for both forms of IPV was more pernicious for these students than either form of IPV alone. We discuss the implications of these results for students, parents, school personnel, and mental health providers in these communities. (PsycINFO Database Record

A preliminary investigation of racial differences in body talk in age-diverse U.S. adults.

To compare racial similarities and differences in conversations about body image, this online study surveyed U.S. adult men (n=1928) and women (n=1965) on 1) exposure to and 2) pressure to engage in body talk using vignettes featuring unfavorable body talk (e.g., "fat talk") or favorable self-accepting body talk. Black women reported less unfavorable body talk compared to White, Hispanic, and Asian women. Conversely, Black and Hispanic women reported more experience with favorable body talk compared to White women. Asian men reported more experience with favorable and unfavorable body talk compared to White men, and Black men reported more experience with favorable body talk compared to White men. Findings for Black women and men are largely consistent with body image literature espousing personal individualization of beauty and style (e.g., "She's got it going on"). Given the dearth of research on body talk among men, conclusions regarding racial differences among men are tentative. Further exploration of varying forms of body talk holds promise for the development of culturally-sensitive prevention and treatment efforts for body image and disordered eating among culturally diverse groups of men and women.

Women's Fat Talk Can "Kill the Mood" for Men.

This study examined men's perceptions of women engaging in "Fat Talk," a style of conversation that expresses discontent towards one's physical appearance, especially focusing on and criticizing body fat, shape, and weight. Male undergraduates were shown a vignette illustrating a courting scenario wherein the target female's body size was manipulated to be "sexy" and: (a) "lean," (b) "average," or (c) "larger." And to another woman, the men overheard the target female either: (a) self-degrade herself (fat talk) or (b) self-accept herself. As a third independent variable, participants' self esteem was divided into high and low with a median split. Dependent variables included self-created Likert items on his attraction towards the target and perceptions of her health and popularity. Men found the target female to have poorer mental health when he overheard her fat talking versus self-accepting. Further, his desire for a more exclusive committed relationship was stronger when she was described as leaner, especially for the lower self-esteemed men. As a pilot study, this has implications for interventions to decrease women's fat talk and begins research on the dynamic interplay between women's fat talk and heterosexual courtships.

Recollections of pressure to eat during childhood, but not picky eating, predict young adult eating behavior.

Picky eating is a childhood behavior that vexes many parents and is a symptom in the newer diagnosis of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) in adults. Pressure to eat, a parental controlling feeding practice aimed at encouraging a child to eat more, is associated with picky eating and a number of other childhood eating concerns. Low intuitive eating, an insensitivity to internal hunger and satiety cues, is also associated with a number of problem eating behaviors in adulthood. Whether picky eating and pressure to eat are predictive of young adult eating behavior is relatively unstudied. Current adult intuitive eating and disordered eating behaviors were self-reported by 170 college students, along with childhood picky eating and pressure through retrospective self- and parent reports. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that childhood parental pressure to eat, but not picky eating, predicted intuitive eating and disordered eating symptoms in college students. These findings suggest that parental pressure in childhood is associated with problematic eating patterns in young adulthood. Additional research is needed to understand the extent to which parental pressure is a reaction to or perhaps compounds the development of problematic eating behavior.

Body size dissatisfaction and avoidance behavior: how gender, age, ethnicity, and relative clothing size predict what some won't try.

Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults are overweight/obese, and this epidemic has physical, psychosocial, and behavioral consequences. An internet sample of adults (N=2997) perceiving themselves as larger than ideal in clothing size reported their body mass index (BMI), relative clothing size (RS; discrepancy between current and ideal size), and avoidance behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis of 10 avoidance items produced social avoidance and body display avoidance factors. A relative importance analysis revealed RS as a better predictor than BMI for avoidance. A hierarchical multivariate analysis of covariance found RS to predict both avoidance constructs. The relationship between RS and both avoidance constructs was stronger for women than men, and for younger as compared to older participants. Caucasians reported more body display avoidance than African Americans. This suggests that personal dissatisfaction with body size may deter involvement in varied life events and that women are especially avoidant of activities that entail displaying their bodies.

Predicting ideal body mass index: what does clothing size have to do with it?

This study examined demographic and anthropometric variables as predictors of ideal body mass index (BMI) from cross-sectional, archival, self-reported data from the Psychology of Size Survey of 4014 U.S. residents collected in 2007. As hypothesized, ideal BMI can be predicted by a within gender hierarchical multiple regression analysis with the predictor variables of age, number of clothing sizes from ideal size, and current BMI; these variables account for 54.1% of variance in women's ideal BMI and 65.5% of variance in men's ideal BMI. Findings also demonstrated a logarithmic relationship between current BMI and ideal BMI, with increasing variance in ideal BMI for individuals with high current BMIs. These findings evidence the strong role of current body characteristics in the formation of ideals. Understanding how individuals conceptualize body ideals can inform researchers and practitioners alike, as this evidence has important implications related to both medical and psychological health.

Retrospective reports of child feeding practices, current eating behaviors, and BMI in college students.

Research concerning child feeding practices has focused on children and adolescents, and little is known about how feeding practices used in childhood relate to eating behaviors and weight status in early adulthood. We assessed college students' and their parents' retrospective reports of child feeding practices used when the students were in middle childhood. We also assessed the college students' current reports of their eating behaviors using the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ) and the Intuitive Eating Scale (IES), and measured their current BMI. Results showed that college students' and their parents' reports about previous parental use of child feeding practices were not correlated. Parent reports of their own use of child feeding practices were more related to students' eating behaviors and BMI than were students' recollections about feeding practices used by their parents. An analysis of gender effects showed that there were positive correlations between parental child feeding practices, BMI, and emotional eating for female students. These relationships did not exist for male students. The results suggest that child feeding practices recollected by parents are linked to the development of emotional eating and weight status of women in early adulthood.

Social likeability, conformity, and body talk: Does fat talk have a normative rival in female body image conversations?

Fat talk, dialogues among women involving negative body-focused discussions, was studied as a function of conformity and social likeability through the use of four vignettes depicting young women in conversation. Using a 2 (body presentation style of the group: negative or positive)x2 (body presentation style of the target, Jenny: negative or positive) factorial design, 215 college women (92.1% non-Hispanic Caucasian) read one of four vignettes in a classroom setting and made ratings on a social likeability scale. Participants' personal ratings of Jenny's likeability were higher when she spoke positively about her body, whereas they expected the other group members in the vignette to like Jenny more when she conformed to the group's body presentation style. This study is the first to support two competing norms for women's body image-the existing norm to fat talk versus a newly documented norm that some women like others who express body acceptance.

Examining "fat talk" experimentally in a female dyad: how are women influenced by another woman's body presentation style?

Fat talk, the verbal dissatisfaction that women express about their bodies, was studied in a female dyad whereby participants interacted with a female confederate who either self-derogated, self-accepted, or self-aggrandized. A 2 (participant body esteem: high vs. low) x3 (confederate style of body image presentation) design was used. Results revealed that participants' public disclosure of their body image varied according to confederate's style. Consistent with a reciprocity effect, participants disclosed the lowest public body image ratings in the self-derogate condition, with moderate ratings in the self-accept condition, and highest ratings in the self-aggrandize condition. Moreover, participants with low compared to high body esteem stated lower public body image. Participants' judgments of the confederates' likeability did not vary as a function of the confederate's body presentational style. Findings support the recursive nature of the social psychology of body image such that personal body image dissatisfaction is partially influenced by fat talk social norms.

Peer pressure to "Fat talk": Does audience type influence how women portray their body image?

"Fat talk" describes women discussing their bodies disparangingly for impression management while interacting with one another. This study examined whether college females deliberately alter their self-reported body image according to characteristics of their prospective audience. This study was a mixed experimental design with four audience conditions (private, public, female audience, male audience) as the between-subjects factor and time across trials as the within-subjects factor using college females as participants (N=100). Pre versus posttest changes on the Body Esteem Scale (BES) and the Body Weight Figure Assessment (BWFA) served as the dependent variables. It was hypothesized that body image would decrease to indicate self-derogation (fat talk) in the public audience and female audience conditions, whereas body image would increase in the male audience condition. These hypotheses were not supported using repeated measures ANOVA. Strengths and weaknesses of the study are discussed.

College student drinking: perception of the norm and behavioral intentions.

Social norm campaigns assume that college students desire to increase their drinking, and may eventually do so, to match inflated perceptions of peer drinking. We assessed 171 college students on self-reported drinking, desired drinking and perception of peer drinking at baseline, and assessed 139 of those students one month later. Participants who believed their peers drank more than they were hypothesized to desire to increase their alcohol consumption to match the perceived norm. This hypothesis was not supported; however, 91% of participants believed their peers drank more than themselves. It was also hypothesized that participants who wished to drink more would drink more in the future. Participants who desired to increase their drinking did not report a significant change in drinking behavior one month later, but participants who initially desired to maintain or decrease their drinking reported significant decreases across the following month. College student overestimation of peer drinking and the college environment are discussed. Social norm campaigns should consider behavioral intentions, and the underlying assumptions of these campaigns should be further tested.

Fat talk and self-presentation of body image: Is there a social norm for women to self-degrade?

The current investigations build upon previous ethnographic research, which identified a social norm for adolescent females to engage in "fat talk" (informal dialogue during which individuals express body dissatisfaction). In Study 1, participants were shown a vignette involving women engaging in fat talk dialogue and were subsequently asked to chose one of three self-presentational responses for a target female: (1) self-accepting of her body, (2) providing no information, or (3) self-degrading about her body. Male and female participants believed the target would be most likely to self-degrade, and that this would lead women to like her, while the self-accepting response would lead men to like her most. Study 2 used the same vignette but participants were asked to respond in an open-ended fashion. Participants again expected the target female to self-degrade. The present findings suggest college students perceive fat talk self-degradation of body image as normative.

Gender differences in the association among nicotine dependence, body image, depression, and anxiety within a college population.

Previous research has linked female weight concerns and smoking. This study examined whether poor body image and other eating disorder variables, after controlling for symptoms of anxiety and depression, were predictive of smoking severity in a sample of 478 college students (n=215 males, n=246 females). Contrary to our hypotheses and recent research, the predictors were not associated with nicotine dependence for females (R(2)=.00), and only dieting was negatively associated with nicotine dependence for males. These findings might be attributable to differences in how nicotine dependence is operationalized, the use of point prevalence symptom data versus lifetime prevalence of psychopathology, the severity of psychopathology in the present sample, or the use of a cross-sectional as opposed to a longitudinal design.