Emotion contagion moderates the relationship between emotionally-negative families and abnormal eating behavior
✍ Scribed by Weisbuch, Max ;Ambady, Nalini ;Slepian, Michael L. ;Jimerson, David C.
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2010
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 147 KB
- Volume
- 44
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0276-3478
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Objective: To reconcile empirical inconsistencies in the relationship between emotionally-negative families and daughters' abnormal eating, we hypothesized a critical moderating variable: daughters' vulnerability to emotion contagion.
Method: A nonclinical sample of undergraduate females (N 5 92) was recruited via an advertisement and completed self-report measures validated for assessing: families' expressive negativity, daughters' susceptibility to emotion contagion, dietary restraint, and disinhibition, eating attitudes, and several control variables (interpersonal orientation, alexithymia, and the big five personality traits: extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness).
Results: All variables and interactions were entered as predictors in a multistep multiple regression equation. Only an emotion contagion by family expressivity interaction term significantly predicted unhealthy eating attitudes (b 5 .29, p 5 .02) and dietary restraint (b 5 .27, p 5 .03). Negatively expressive families significantly induced unhealthy eating and restraint but only among young women susceptible to emotion contagion (ps \ .05).
Discussion: Young women susceptible to emotion contagion may be at increased risk for eating disorders.