Role of Social Eating in the Relationship between Appearance Orientation and Eating Disorder Related Impairment, The

Fear of negative evaluation from family, friends, and/or peers can lead to fear or avoidance of eating with others (Spoor et al., 2006; Petrie et al., 2009). These fears and behaviors can lead to impairment in multiple circles of one’s life (Aderka et al., 2014). The fear of negative evaluation has been shown to be a predictor of disordered eating (Levinson & Rodebaugh, 2011). Thus, the present study attempted to analyze the effect of social eating on impairment. Research has previously shown a relationship between appearance orientation (AO) and eating disorder (ED) related impairment. The purpose of this study was to determine if the association between AO and ED related impairment is mediated by the avoidance of social eating (ASE). Participants (N = 303) completed measures assessing eating psychopathology, ED related impairment, and appearance orientation. Data were analyzed using the Process macro in SPSS. Results suggest that there is an association between all three variables individually (AO-ED-impairment; AO-ASE; ASE-ED-impairment) as well as a partial mediation pathway (indirect effect = 0.0990, CI (95%) = 0.0488, 0.1452) when controlling for both sex and BMI.