Houston Daily

University of Houston researchers have published a study examining the relationship between psychological flexibility and eating disorders among women. The study, which included over 1,300 adult women from Hawaii, was featured in the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science.

The research highlights that up to 67% of female college students in the United States are affected by some form of eating disorder. These disorders range from mild issues like body dissatisfaction to severe conditions such as anorexia nervosa. Preventive interventions are deemed essential to mitigate these negative impacts on mental and physical health.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is identified as a promising preventive approach. ACT encourages individuals to accept negative thoughts while focusing on personal values and committing to actions aligned with those values. The therapy aims to enhance psychological flexibility.

“In general, we found that women who were more psychologically flexible and less inflexible had fewer signs of eating disorders,” stated Michael Zvolensky, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at UH. He described psychologically flexible individuals as those who can acknowledge their thoughts, including potentially threatening ones, while remaining mindful of the present.

The researchers created profiles based on ACT processes using the Multidimensional Psychological Flexibility Inventory. They discovered varying prevalence rates for different behaviors: binge eating (17.89%), muscle building (16.48%), excessive exercise (9.73%), and purging (6.16%).

Duckhyun Jo, a post-doctoral student in Zvolensky's lab and first author of the paper, noted that racial background and sexual orientation significantly influenced profile categorization within the study's findings.

“Our study showed that people experience ACT-related processes in different ways, and a personalized approach might be best when using ACT to prevent eating disorders,” Jo said.

Other contributors to this research include Lorra Garey, Brooke Y. Redmond, and Justin M. Shepherd.