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Barbara Klingenspor* and Daniela Rastetter**
*Freie Universität Berlin, **Hamburger Universität
für Wirtschaft und Politik
Abstract:
Bulimic eating disorders are predominantly diagnosed in women.
Social-psychological factors, in particular stereotypes that
associate gender with specific personality traits, are thought
to influence eating behavior and to cause eating disorders. Previous
findings suggest that bulimic eating behavior is linked to the
suppression of masculine traits. In order to test this hypothesis,
discrepancies between the actual and the ideal self were examined
as precursors of low self-esteem and bulimic eating behavior
in adolescents between the ages of 13 and 20. Data were collected
in an anonymous questionnaire study and analyzed with structural
equation modeling. The discrepancy between how much they believed
to possess masculine traits (actual
self) and how much they would like to (ideal self) increased
with age in girls in contrast to boys, while the discrepancy
with regard to feminine traits
decreased in both groups. For both sexes, bulimic eating behavior
was related to masculine self-discrepancies indirectly, via self-esteem
and dieting.
Keywords: Eating disorders, sex stereotypes, gender
identity, identity development, self discrepancies.
Zeitschrift
für Sozialpsychologie, 2004, 35, 2, 67-82. © 2004 Verlag
Hans Huber
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