CHILDHOOD ABUSE, BODY-IMAGE DISTURBANCE, AND EATING DISORDERS

Studies have suggested that women who experience child sexual abuse ar e at risk for developing symptoms related to anorexia nervosa and buli mia. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships among childhood sexual and physical abuse, body image disturbance, an d eating disorder symptomatology. Of 670 female college students scree ned for childhood abuse, 29 sexually abused, 32 physically abused, and 29 nonabused women completed measures of eating disorder symptoms, ps ychological factors thought to be related to eating disorders, and bod y image distortion. Contrary to previous reports, there was no evidenc e that child sexual or physical abuse was associated with the developm ent of body image disturbance. Furthermore, the results did not suppor t the hypothesis that child sexual and physical abuse are related to e ating disorder symptomatology. It is suggested that subjects who are v ictims of child sexual abuse and who are receiving psychotherapy manif est higher rates of a number of different types of psychopathology, in cluding eating disorders.