Attachment anxiety is associated with a fear of becoming fat, which is mediated by binge eating

Background Previous work demonstrated that individuals with higher levels of attachment anxiety are prone to increased binge eating (Alexander & Siegel, 2013). Given that our society rejects obese individuals and individuals with higher levels of attachment anxiety tend to be highly sensitive to rejection (Downey & Feldman, 1996), it follows that those with increased attachment anxiety may be especially fearful of becoming fat. Methods Undergraduate psychology students (n = 148) completed surveys measuring attachment, binge eating, and fear of becoming fat. Results The data demonstrate that attachment anxiety is positively associated with a fear of becoming fat (β = .30, p < .001) and binge eating mediates this relationship. In other words, binge eating underlies the fear of becoming fat. Discussion These findings contribute to a more refined understanding of binge eating which may create pathways for professionals to develop targeted interventions.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  PeerJ

• Publication date

  2017-03-08

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.7717/peerj.3034PMID 28286709PMCID 5345385
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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