Abstract

Objective: To reconcile empirical inconsistencies in the relationship between emotionally-negative families and daughters' abnormal eating, we hypothesized a critical moderating variable: daughters' vulnerability to emotion contagion.

Method: A nonclinical sample of undergraduate females (N = 92) was recruited via an advertisement and completed self-report measures validated for assessing: families' expressive negativity, daughters' susceptibility to emotion contagion, dietary restraint, and disinhibition, eating attitudes, and several control variables (interpersonal orientation, alexithymia, and the big five personality traits: extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, neuroticism, and agreeableness).

Results: All variables and interactions were entered as predictors in a multistep multiple regression equation. Only an emotion contagion by family expressivity interaction term significantly predicted unhealthy eating attitudes (β = .29, p = .02) and dietary restraint (β = .27, p = .03). Negatively expressive families significantly induced unhealthy eating and restraint but only among young women susceptible to emotion contagion (ps < .05).

Discussion: Young women susceptible to emotion contagion may be at increased risk for eating disorders.

Citation

Weisbuch, M., N. Ambady, Michael Slepian, and D.C. Jimerson. "Emotion contagion moderates the relationship between emotionally-negative families and abnormal eating behavior." International Journal of Eating Disorders 44, no. 8 (December 2011): 716-720.

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