THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF BODY-IMAGE DISTURBANCES IN ANOREXIA-NERVOSA AND BULIMIA-NERVOSA - A METAANALYSIS

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.