The effect of attentional training on body dissatisfaction and dietary restriction

Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2009 May;17(3):169-76. doi: 10.1002/erv.921.

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of attentional training towards shape, weight and food related information on body dissatisfaction and dietary restriction. A total of 98 female participants were trained to attend to negative shape/weight words, positive shape/weight words, negative (high calorie) food words, positive (low calorie) food words or neutral words. Subsequently, a body image challenge was presented and participants' body dissatisfaction and dietary restriction were measured. Results indicated that negative shape/weight attentional biases exacerbated body dissatisfaction and a bias towards negative food words intensified dietary restriction. The study provides evidence for specificity in the effects of attentional biases and supports the notion that attentional training may be a useful component in interventions to improve body image and reduce dieting.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Affect*
  • Attention*
  • Body Image*
  • Body Weight
  • Diet, Reducing / psychology*
  • Feeding Behavior / psychology*
  • Female
  • Food
  • Humans
  • Terminology as Topic*
  • Young Adult