Aging anxieties and disturbed eating in female students: It’s not all about aging appearance concern
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Mahoney, Béré
Abstract / Description
Fear and anxiety about aging have increased amongst female university students and these personal aging concerns are associated with disturbed eating, also prevalent in this group. Evidence suggests concern about aging appearance could account for the link between aging anxiety and problem eating in young women due to their belief in the thin – youth ideal. However, whether appearance concern is the strongest aging anxiety predictor of global and specific disturbed eating behaviors is unclear. The study examines this in a sample of female students at a Midlands university in the United Kingdom (N = 200, 18 – 39 years) who completed the Anxiety about Aging Scale and the Eating Disorders Inventory-3. The findings show general and a model of four aging anxieties predicted significantly greater global disturbed eating with medium and large effects sizes respectively. However, greater anxiety about the psychological challenges and interpersonal losses associated with aging best predicted global and specific disturbed eating behaviors and aging appearance concern was a weaker predictor. Implications for interventions targeting female students eating behavior are considered.
Keyword(s)
female students disturbed eating aging anxiety psychological losses interpersonal lossesPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2018-03-12
Journal title
Europe's Journal of Psychology
Volume
14
Issue
1
Page numbers
7–27
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Mahoney, B. (2018). Aging anxieties and disturbed eating in female students: It’s not all about aging appearance concern. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 14(1), 7–27. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i1.1390
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ejop.v14i1.1390.pdfAdobe PDF - 299.47KBMD5: f6254156646e26b569dd7cf25b9ef75a
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Mahoney, Béré
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2018-11-21T10:00:14Z
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Made available on2018-11-21T10:00:14Z
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Date of first publication2018-03-12
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Abstract / DescriptionFear and anxiety about aging have increased amongst female university students and these personal aging concerns are associated with disturbed eating, also prevalent in this group. Evidence suggests concern about aging appearance could account for the link between aging anxiety and problem eating in young women due to their belief in the thin – youth ideal. However, whether appearance concern is the strongest aging anxiety predictor of global and specific disturbed eating behaviors is unclear. The study examines this in a sample of female students at a Midlands university in the United Kingdom (N = 200, 18 – 39 years) who completed the Anxiety about Aging Scale and the Eating Disorders Inventory-3. The findings show general and a model of four aging anxieties predicted significantly greater global disturbed eating with medium and large effects sizes respectively. However, greater anxiety about the psychological challenges and interpersonal losses associated with aging best predicted global and specific disturbed eating behaviors and aging appearance concern was a weaker predictor. Implications for interventions targeting female students eating behavior are considered.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationMahoney, B. (2018). Aging anxieties and disturbed eating in female students: It’s not all about aging appearance concern. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 14(1), 7–27. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i1.1390
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ISSN1841-0413
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1089
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1281
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v14i1.1390
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Keyword(s)female studentsen_US
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Keyword(s)disturbed eatingen_US
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Keyword(s)aging anxietyen_US
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Keyword(s)psychological lossesen_US
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Keyword(s)interpersonal lossesen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleAging anxieties and disturbed eating in female students: It’s not all about aging appearance concernen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue1
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Journal titleEurope's Journal of Psychology
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Page numbers7–27
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Volume14
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Visible tag(s)Version of Record