Relation of sexual abuse and bulimia in college women

Abstract

This study investigated the relation between self-report of prior sexual abuse and self-report of current eating behaviors consistent with bulimia. The subjects were 340 college women who completed the Bulimia Test and a modified version of Finkelhor's Life Events Questionnaire, which inquires about experiences of sexual abuse. Bulimic women did not report a higher incidence of past intrafamilial sexual abuse than did the comparison group. However, bulimic women did report both significantly more experiences of extrafamilial sexual abuse after age 12 and that they had narrowly missed being sexually assaulted more often than did the comparison group of women. The findings provide limited support for the clinical belief that sexual abuse is associated with bulimia. It may be that perception of control is a mediator for the possible sexual abuse-bulimia relation.