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Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women

The sexual competition hypothesis (SCH) contends that intense female intrasexual competition (ISC) is the ultimate cause of eating disorders. The SCH explains the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness as an adaptation to ISC in the modern environment. It argues that eating disorders are pathological...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Abed, Riadh, Mehta, Sunil, Figueredo, Aurelio José, Aldridge, Sarah, Balson, Hannah, Meyer, Caroline, Palmer, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Scientific World Journal 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3330742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22566764
http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/290813
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author Abed, Riadh
Mehta, Sunil
Figueredo, Aurelio José
Aldridge, Sarah
Balson, Hannah
Meyer, Caroline
Palmer, Robert
author_facet Abed, Riadh
Mehta, Sunil
Figueredo, Aurelio José
Aldridge, Sarah
Balson, Hannah
Meyer, Caroline
Palmer, Robert
author_sort Abed, Riadh
collection PubMed
description The sexual competition hypothesis (SCH) contends that intense female intrasexual competition (ISC) is the ultimate cause of eating disorders. The SCH explains the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness as an adaptation to ISC in the modern environment. It argues that eating disorders are pathological phenomena that arise from the mismatch between the modern environment and the inherited female adaptations for ISC. The present study has two aims. The first is to examine the relationship between disordered eating behavior (DEB) and ISC in a sample of female undergraduates. The second is to establish whether there is any relationship between disordered eating behavior and life history (LH) strategy. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires examining eating-related attitudes and behaviors, ISC, and LH strategy. A group of 206 female undergraduates were recruited. A structural equation model was constructed to analyze the data. ISC for mates was significantly associated with DEB, as predicted by the SCH. DEB was found to be predicted by fast LH strategy, which was only partially mediated by the SCH. The results of this study are supportive of the SCH and justify research on a clinical sample.
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spelling pubmed-33307422012-05-07 Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women Abed, Riadh Mehta, Sunil Figueredo, Aurelio José Aldridge, Sarah Balson, Hannah Meyer, Caroline Palmer, Robert ScientificWorldJournal Research Article The sexual competition hypothesis (SCH) contends that intense female intrasexual competition (ISC) is the ultimate cause of eating disorders. The SCH explains the phenomenon of the pursuit of thinness as an adaptation to ISC in the modern environment. It argues that eating disorders are pathological phenomena that arise from the mismatch between the modern environment and the inherited female adaptations for ISC. The present study has two aims. The first is to examine the relationship between disordered eating behavior (DEB) and ISC in a sample of female undergraduates. The second is to establish whether there is any relationship between disordered eating behavior and life history (LH) strategy. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires examining eating-related attitudes and behaviors, ISC, and LH strategy. A group of 206 female undergraduates were recruited. A structural equation model was constructed to analyze the data. ISC for mates was significantly associated with DEB, as predicted by the SCH. DEB was found to be predicted by fast LH strategy, which was only partially mediated by the SCH. The results of this study are supportive of the SCH and justify research on a clinical sample. The Scientific World Journal 2012-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3330742/ /pubmed/22566764 http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/290813 Text en Copyright © 2012 Riadh Abed et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Abed, Riadh
Mehta, Sunil
Figueredo, Aurelio José
Aldridge, Sarah
Balson, Hannah
Meyer, Caroline
Palmer, Robert
Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women
title Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women
title_full Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women
title_fullStr Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women
title_full_unstemmed Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women
title_short Eating Disorders and Intrasexual Competition: Testing an Evolutionary Hypothesis among Young Women
title_sort eating disorders and intrasexual competition: testing an evolutionary hypothesis among young women
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3330742/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22566764
http://dx.doi.org/10.1100/2012/290813
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