Military sexual trauma, combat trauma, and disordered eating among United States veterans: An exploration of underlying mechanisms

ABSTRACT

Military sexual trauma (MST) and combat trauma (CT) survivors experience disproportionate risk for disordered eating. A survey of MST, CT, disordered eating, trauma-related self-blame, emotion regulation challenges, body dissatisfaction, and dissociation among military personnel with a history of military-related trauma was conducted. These survey-based cross-sectional data were analyzed via parallel mediation analyses and Analyses of Covariance (ANCOVA). Six parallel mediation analyses were conducted examining trauma-related self-blame, emotion regulation challenges, body dissatisfaction, and dissociation as mediators linking MST and CT, separately, with purging, restricting, and bingeing. ANCOVAs were also performed to examine differences in levels of bingeing, restriction, and purging among people exposed to MST, CT, both MST and CT, and neither. MST and CT exposure was indirectly related to bingeing via emotion regulation challenges. MST and CT was also indirectly related to both restriction and purging via emotion regulation challenges and trauma-related self-blame. Dissociation and body dissatisfaction were not significant mediators in any model. Participants endorsed high levels of disordered eating. Individuals exposed to both MST and CT reported greater bingeing, restricting, and purging than individuals exposed to either CT, MST, or neither. Findings highlight the nuanced symptoms that may increase risk for disordered eating among MST and/or CT survivors. Future treatment research should explore how addressing emotion regulation and trauma-related self-blame among individuals with MST and/or CT may help address disordered eating. Implications and future directions for this area of research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Military sexual trauma
• combat trauma
• eating
• eating disorders

Disclosure statement

The manuscript preparation was supported in part by a grant from the National Institute on Mental Health (T32MH018869, MPI: Danielson, Kilpatrick).

Data availability statement

Data are available upon request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2024.2336639.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the The preparation of this manuscript was supported by grant T32 MH18869-35 (MPI: Danielson & Kilpatrick) from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), NIH. Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the NIMH/NIH. [T32 MH18869-35]; Bowling Green State University psychology departmental funds for doctoral student research in clinical psychology were used to complete this project.