Associations among weight suppression, self-acceptance, negative body image, and eating disorder behaviors among women with eating disorder symptoms

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to clarify existing research that has inconsistently shown that weight suppression (differences between individuals’ highest and current body weights) is associated with worse eating disorder (ED) behaviors and negative body image among women with lifetime EDs, by examining whether an understudied client-supported protective factor for ED pathology – self-acceptance – moderates these associations. Currently symptomatic women with lifetime EDs (N = 108) completed measures assessing self-acceptance and ED symptoms via an online survey. Moderated regressions examined whether self-acceptance moderated associations between weight suppression and both body image (weight/shape preoccupation, overvaluation, dissatisfaction) and ED behavior (dietary restraint, compensatory behaviors, binge eating) outcomes. Results indicated that weight suppression was associated with more severe negative body image and dietary restraint, but not compensatory behaviors or binge eating. In contrast, self-acceptance consistently emerged as a protective factor relative to all negative body image and ED behavior indices. This protective effect did not offset apparent risk factor associations between weight suppression, and negative body image and ED behavior outcomes. These results support further assessment of self-acceptance as an understudied protective factor for women’s ED symptoms and as a mechanism of change in EDs intervention research. Women’s weight suppression should be assessed during ED prevention initiatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Body dissatisfaction
• eating disorders
• self-acceptance
• weight suppression
• women’s health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Results using the traditional weight suppression measurement approach (i.e., lifetime highest weight minus current weight) did not differ from those using the relative weight suppression conceptualization. Data using the former approach are available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was completed in part with support from the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number [F31MH120982 to Kelly A. Romano]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.