Developmental onset of eating-related color-naming interference: The role of restraint and eating psychopathology

Objective: This study investigated the developmental onset of the Stroop in terference effect for food and body shape words in 12- and 14-year-old fema les to determine whether dietary restraint and eating psychopathology influ enced Stroop performance times. Method: A Stroop task containing neutral, f ood, and body shape-related words was administered to 152 schoolgirls. Part icipants completed the restraint scale of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questio nnaire and the Drive for Thinness (DFT) subscale of the Eating Disorders in ventory. Results: Significant color-naming impairments were observed for fo od-related words in 12- and 14-year-olds, in 14-year-old restrained eaters, and in 12-year-old unrestrained eaters. There were no significant differen ces between restrained and unrestrained eaters in either age group. Partici pants scoring high on the DFT subscale showed significant impairments for f ood-related words, but did not differ significantly from those scoring low on the DFT. There were no significant impairments in color-naming body shap e-related words in any subgroups. Discussion: This study did not confirm a different developmental onset for the food and body shape Stroop interferen ce effect. Consideration of dietary restraint did add clarify to previously observed food-related interference effects in both age groups. The results for high- and low-DFT participants do not support the use of the eating-re lated Stroop tests as an early objective indicator of eating psychopatholog y. (C) 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.