Bullying and Eating Pathology: Do Social Anxiety and Shame Explain the Links?

Empirical studies have found associations of bullying and teasing about appearance with eating pathology. However, the nature of these links is not clear. This study therefore investigated the possible links between traumatic experiences and eating disorders, focusing on the potential mediating role of two socially oriented emotions - shame and social anxiety. A mediator model was tested, proposing that there would be a relationship between bullying and eating pathology, which would be mediated by social anxiety and shame. Seventy-five female university students were recruited as the control sample. Ninetytwo eating-disordered women were recruited from a specialist Eating Disorders Service as the clinical sample. All participants completed a social anxiety scale (Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale; Leary, 1983), a shame scale (Experience of Shame Scale; Andrews Qian & Valentine, 2002), a measure of eating pathology (Eating Disorders Inventory; Gamer, Olmsted & Polivy, 1983) and a measure of bullying and teasing about appearance (the bullying matrix). This study found a relationship between teasing and eating pathology that is mediated by shame and social anxiety. It supports existing evidence regarding the associations between trauma (specifically childhood teasing about appearance) and eating pathology, teasing about appearance and social anxiety and shame, and the association between these emotions and eating pathology