The relationship among feminist attitudes, perceived parental attitudes towards women, achievement orientation, and eating disordered behavior in late adolescent women

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the endorsement of feminist attitudes and ideals, perceived parental attitudes towards women, achievement orientation and the reporting of symptoms of eating disorders in late adolescent females. The study focused on late adolescent women in college, because of the high prevalence rate of disordered eating behavior in late adolescent young women particularly those attending college. Eating disorder symptoms were measured using the 8 primary subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (Garner, 1991). The other scales used in the study were The Liberal Feminist Attitudes and Ideology Scale (Morgan, 1996), a modified version of the short form of the Attitudes Towards Women Scale (Spence & Helmreich, 1973) which asked about perceived parental attitudes towards women, and The Personal Achievement Values scale which consisted of two subscales (Academic achievement and Status subscales) of the Scott (1965) Personal Values Scales. The sample consisted of 89 female college students between the ages of 18 and 25. The results of the study indicated that the explanatory variables did not significantly relate to the reporting of eating disorder symptoms. There was however partial support for the hypotheses when other variables relating to eating disorders were examined as outcome measures. Feminist attitudes and achievement orientation were found to positively relate to higher rates of perfectionism as measured by the Perfectionism subscale of the EDI-2. This partial positive finding should encourage schools and agencies that work with adolescent and college age women to incorporate into their curricula and missions the goal of fostering feminist attitudes particularly in high achieving young women