Sexual victimization and adolescent weight regulation practices: A test across three community based samples

Objective: This study had four objectives: 1) to examine the association be tween sexual victimization and weight regulation across three samples of ad olescent girls, 2) to assess whether sexual victimization is associated wit h more extreme forms of weight regulation in girls, 3) to discern whether s exual victimization has implications for the use of multiple forms of weigh t regulation, and 4) to address the role of physical victimization in expla ining these relationships. Method: Data from three separate samples of 9th-12th graders were used to t est these hypotheses. Girls from the upper Midwest responded to survey ques tions related to victimization and weight regulation in a largely urban sam ple (N = 2,086), a rural sample (N = 2,629), and a statewide sample (N = 96 6). Results: Logistic regression revealed that sexual victimization was consist ently associated with weight regulation in adolescent girls, independent of the effects of physical victimization. In the urban sample, being sexually victimized was associated with an increase in the probability of purging b y 18% relative to not being sexually victimized. Sexual victimization was a ssociated more strongly with extreme forms of weight regulation and signifi cantly discriminated whether girls would choose multiple weight regulation forms. Conclusions: Sexual victimization contributes unique variance to the probab ility that girls will practice weight regulation techniques. Data from thre e independent samples confirms that being violated sexually places girls at risk for various health compromising eating behaviors. (C) 2001 Elsevier S cience Ltd. All rights reserved.