Childhood sexual abuse, body image, and disordered eating: a structural modeling analysis

Abstract

Based on previous literature, a model of the Micrographics. relationships between child sexual abuse (CSA), body image, dieting, bulimia, and ESD was proposed. The model specified that (a) child sexual abuse directly affects body image, (b) body image directly affects dieting and bulimic behavior, (c) child sexual abuse indirectly affects dieting and bulimic behavior through the mediating concept of body image, and (d) child sexual abuse directly affects NSD. The factor structure of the assessment instruments (measurement model) and the hypothesized relationships among latent variables (structural model) were analyzed using the LISREL 8 program (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1996). Family environment was controlled for, and the proposed model was tested against two alternative models. The model was also tested with adolescent sexual abuse (ASA) as the latent variable of abuse. Findings indicated that constructs of body image and dieting were highly related and demonstrated poor discriminant validity. With the exception of these two constructs, the measurement model had a good fit, suggesting that the rest of the questionnaires used to measure family environment, CSA, body image, dieting, bulimia, and ESD, are generally good measures of their respective constructs, and that most constructs are distinct from each other. The hypothesized structural model showed and adequate fit, as well as better fit than the alternative models. However, the proposed direct relationship between CSA and body image, as well as the proposed indirect relationship between CSA and disordered eating were not confirmed. These proposed relationships were significant when ASA was used instead of CSA in the model. These results do no suggest that, while controlling for family environment, CSA is related to body image disturbance or indirectly related to disordered eating in a college population.