Disordered eating-related cognition and psychological flexibility as predictors of psychological health among college students.
Low psychological flexibility predicts college student distress beyond eating thoughts—screen for both.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Masuda et al. (2010) gave one survey to college students.
The survey asked about rigid eating thoughts and psychological flexibility.
Students also rated their own distress.
What they found
Kids who scored low on flexibility felt worse, even after eating thoughts were counted.
Flexibility added new information beyond eating cognitions alone.
How this fits with other research
Eden et al. (2017) looked at body image in young adults with intellectual disability.
They found these adults liked their bodies but still misjudged their own size.
Together the two papers show body-eating thoughts matter for both groups, yet people with ID may need extra teaching to link size words to their own bodies.
Maïano et al. (2011) made a short six-item body-self tool for clients with ID.
You can pair that tool with a flexibility screener to get a fuller picture.
Why it matters
When you see eating worries in any young adult, add a quick flexibility scale.
Low scores flag extra distress that eating questions alone can miss.
Use the data to pick acceptance-based lessons, not just food rules.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present cross-sectional study investigated the relation among disordered eating-related cognition, psychological flexibility, and poor psychological outcomes among a nonclinical college sample. As predicted, conviction of disordered eating-related cognitions was positively associated with general psychological ill-health and emotional distress in interpersonal contexts. Disordered eating-related cognition was also inversely related to psychological flexibility, which was inversely related to poor psychological health and emotional distress in interpersonal contexts. The combination of disordered eating-related cognition and psychological flexibility accounted for the proportion of variance of these poor psychological outcomes greater than disordered eating-related cognition alone. Finally, psychological flexibility accounted for the proportion of variance of these negative psychological variables greater than did disordered eating-related cognition.
Behavior modification, 2010 · doi:10.1177/0145445509351569