Mediating Social Anxiety and Disordered Eating: The Role of Expressive Suppression

Authors

Carmen P. McLean, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Nathan A. Miller, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Debra A. Hope, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Debra A. Hope

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2007

Citation

Eating Disorders 15:1 (2007), pp. 41–54.

doi: 10.1080/10640260601044485

Comments

Copyright © 2007 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Used by permission.

Abstract

Social anxiety and disordered eating frequently overlap, and evidence suggests that emotional suppression may be an important mediating factor. The present study examines the relationships among social anxiety, emotional suppression, and disordered eating in a nonclinical sample of 160 undergraduate women. Participants completed self-report measures for social anxiety, disordered eating, expressive suppression, depression, and negative affect. Results from mediation analyses indicate that the relationship between social anxiety and disordered eating is fully mediated by expressive suppression. Findings are consistent with a displacement theory in which unexpressed negative affect is shifted toward the body, thereby promoting symptoms of disordered eating.