The statistics are hard to ignore: Up to 67 % of female college students in the United States are battling some form of eating disorder, affecting both their mental and physical health during a critical time in their lives. A range of eating disorders exist, varying in severity from mild (body dissatisfaction) to life-threatening (anorexia nervosa).
To address the negative impact of eating disorders, preventive interventions are essential, according to researchers. One promising approach is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which is meant to increase an individual's psychological flexibility. ACT guides clients to accept negative thoughts as a natural part of life, while still focusing on what truly matters to them and committing to actions based on their values despite those thoughts.
While the use of ACT therapy is increasing among those with eating disorders, University of Houston psychology researchers have found that people experience ACT-related therapy in different ways, and a personalized approach might be best when using ACT to prevent eating disorders. Their research, focusing on the study of over 1,300 adult women from Hawaii, is published in Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science.
"In general, we found that women who were more psychologically flexible and less inflexible had fewer signs of eating disorders," reports Michael Zvolensky, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor of Psychology. "A psychologically flexible person has the ability to be aware of their thoughts, accepting even ones that might seem threatening, and be mindful of the present."
Researchers created profiles of volunteers based on ACT processes measured by the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory. They found that binge eating was most prevalent (17.89%), followed by muscle building (16.48%), excessive exercise (9.73%) and purging (6.16%).
The study also explored the influence of participants' racial backgrounds and sexual orientations on the formation of their profiles, and the association between the identified profiles and eating disorder symptoms.
"The analysis revealed that racial background and sexual orientation statistically significantly influenced profile categorization," said Duckhyun Jo, a post-doctoral student in the Zvolensky lab and the paper's first author.
"Our study showed that people experience ACT-related processes in different ways, and a personalized approach might be best when using ACT to prevent eating disorders," he said.
Other members of the UH research team include Lorra Garey, Brooke Y. Redmond and Justin M. Shepherd.
