Eating disturbance as a manifestation of the stress process: A review of the literature

This article reviews the current literature on 'disturbed eating patterns', particularly anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) and the relati onship between these two eating disorders and life stress, coping styles, s ocial support and personality factors. The article sets out to describe how these psychosocial factors interact and the possible role they play in eat ing disturbance. Three possible models of the stress process and its relati onship to disordered eating behaviour are proposed. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.