Self-compassion and body image inflexibility as mediators of outcomes in a residential eating disorder sample

Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that are accompanied by negative health outcomes, high mortality rates, impaired functioning, and comorbid mental health conditions. Despite many empirically supported interventions for eating disorders, it remains one of the most challenging mental disorders to treat, as individuals often struggle to maintain treatment gains. One method of improving our understanding of effective eating disorder treatment is to identify important processes of change to target during therapy. The aim of the current study was to test two candidate mediators of disordered eating symptom change during residential treatment: self-compassion and body image inflexibility. In the present study, women and adolescent girls (N = 132) completed a battery of measures, including eating disorder severity, self-compassion, and body image inflexibility, at admission to and discharge from a residential eating disorder facility. Our results indicated that changes in body image inflexibility and self-compassion, specifically self-judgment, were both mediators between ED symptom severity from pre- to post-treatment. These results have potential treatment implications, pointing to the possible importance of targeting body image inflexibility, self-judgment, and self-compassion while treating eating disorders.

The influence of sport motivation on college students' subjective exercise experience: a mediation model with moderation

Background

The degree to which an individual experiences a positive emotional state after exercise is a measurement of how much enjoyment sports bring to the individual. This can also be seen as the individual's essential motivation for engaging in sports, and an indirect means of improving the individual's physical health. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the factors that affect college students' subjective exercise experience and their effecting mechanism, thereby providing a basis for promoting college students' positive emotional experience after exercise.

Methods

A questionnaire survey on 600 college students was conducted to examine the mediating effect of sport-confidence on the relationship between college students' sport motivation and their subjective exercise experience, and to investigate whether this process is moderated by the feelings of inadequacy.

Results

The indirect effect of sport-confidence was significant (95% CI [0.133, 0.276]), and the index of moderated mediation Bootstrap 95% CI [0.003, 0.017] did not contain 0.

Conclusion

The results indicated that: (1) sport-confidence had a partial mediating effect between college students' sport motivation and their subjective exercise experience; (2) the mediating effect of sport-confidence was moderated by the feelings of inadequacy, and the feelings of inadequacy moderated the latter half path of the mediating process of sport motivation - sport-confidence - subjective exercise experience. Therefore, the influence of college students' sport motivation on their subjective exercise experience is a moderated mediating model.

Food Cravings and Eating: The Role of Experiential Avoidance

Food cravings have been associated with problematic eating behaviors, such as emotional eating. Late adolescence is an important developmental period to examine this association, as late adolescents have greater independence in food choices as well as potentially higher demands during a transitional period of their lives. Mechanisms underlying the association between food cravings and problematic eating remain unclear. This study examined whether experiential avoidance (EA) may be one possible mechanism mediating the association between higher levels of food cravings and problematic eating behaviors. Late adolescents (n = 174) completed measures assessing EA, food cravings, and three problematic eating behaviors: emotional eating, cognitive restraint, and uncontrolled eating. Height and weight were measured objectively to calculate body mass index (BMI). Food cravings were positively associated with emotional eating and mediated by EA. EA also significantly mediated the association between greater cognitive restraint and greater food cravings. No significant mediation was detected for food cravings and uncontrolled eating. Future research may consider EA as a treatment target in intervention strategies for late adolescents seeking to decrease emotional or restrained eating behaviors.