Tf. Cash et Ea. Deagle, THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF BODY-IMAGE DISTURBANCES IN ANOREXIA-NERVOSA AND BULIMIA-NERVOSA - A METAANALYSIS, The International journal of eating disorders, 22(2), 1997, pp. 107-125
Objective: Although body-image disturbance is among the diagnostic cri
teria for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, the nature and extent
of this disturbance have not been precisely identified This is the pur
pose of this first meta-analysis of extant research on body image and
eating disorders. Method: Using contemporary techniques, the meta-anal
ysis systematically examined 66 studies (from 1974 to 1993) of percept
ual and attitudinal parameters of body image among anorexics and bulim
ics relative to control groups. Results: Attitudinal body dissatisfact
ion, both questionnaire and self-ideal discrepancy measures, produced
substantially larger effect sizes than did perceptual size-estimation
inaccuracy. Body dissatisfaction measures, whether global or weight/sh
ape related, differentiated bulimic and anorexic groups (with bulimics
having more dissatisfaction), whereas perceptual distortion indices d
id not. Somewhat larger effects occurred with whole-body than with bod
y-part size-estimation assessments. Size distortion among patients wit
h eating disorders appears unlikely to reflect a more generalized sens
ory/perceptual deficit. Discussion: Scientific, conceptual, and clinic
al implications of these findings are delineated. (C) 1997 John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.