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Affect systems, changes in body mass index, disordered eating and stress: an 18-month longitudinal study in women

Kupeli, N; Norton, S; Chilcot, J; Campbell, IC; Schmidt, UH; Troop, NA; (2017) Affect systems, changes in body mass index, disordered eating and stress: an 18-month longitudinal study in women. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine , 5 (1) pp. 214-228. 10.1080/21642850.2017.1316667. Green open access

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that stress plays a role in changes in body weight and disordered eating. The present study examined the effect of mood, affect systems (attachment and social rank) and affect regulatory processes (self-criticism, self-reassurance) on the stress process and how this impacts on changes in weight and disordered eating. METHODS: A large sample of women participated in a community-based prospective, longitudinal online study in which measures of body mass index (BMI), disordered eating, perceived stress, attachment, social rank, mood and self-criticism/reassurance were measured at 6-monthly intervals over an 18-month period. RESULTS: Latent Growth Curve Modelling showed that BMI increased over 18 months while stress and disordered eating decreased and that these changes were predicted by high baseline levels of these constructs. Independently of this, however, increases in stress predicted a reduction in BMI which was, itself, predicted by baseline levels of self-hatred and unfavourable social comparison. CONCLUSIONS: This study adds support to the evidence that stress is important in weight change. In addition, this is the first study to show in a longitudinal design, that social rank and self-criticism (as opposed to self-reassurance) at times of difficulty predict increases in stress and, thus, suggests a role for these constructs in weight regulation.

Type: Article
Title: Affect systems, changes in body mass index, disordered eating and stress: an 18-month longitudinal study in women
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/21642850.2017.1316667
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2017.1316667
Language: English
Additional information: © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Stress, weight, disordered eating, affect regulation, longitudinal
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1556407
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