Background

An interesting debate in the literature is about the role of race/ethnicity not only as a risk factor for eating disorders (EDs), but also as a moderator of the relations between other risk factors and ED symptoms. The following research question was explored: Does race/ethnicity moderate the relations between the implicit belief that high-fat food is shameful and ED symptoms?

Methods

About 15,000 (N = 14,964) volunteers (67.7% White, 7.7% Asian, 7.4% Hispanic, 6.9% Black) completed the Implicit Association Test (IAT) measuring the implicit associations between high-fat (vs. low-fat) food and shameful (vs. acceptable) on the Project Implicit mental-health website (https://implicit.harvard.edu) between 2011 and 2017. ED symptoms and demographics were measured via self-report.

Results

Race/ethnicity moderated (beta = 0.087, p = .002) the relations between IAT and ED symptoms, adjusting for BMI, age, sex, education, such that the IAT was related to ED symptoms among Whites (r = 0.113, p < .001), Hispanics (r = 0.086, p = .004), and Asians (r = 0.097, p = .001), but not Blacks (r = 0.056, p = .071).

Discussion

Although the effect size was small, findings imply that some ED risk factors may vary among racial/ethnic groups. Future studies should use prospective designs to examine whether implicit biases actually represent a risk factor for ED symptoms and whether this varies by race/ethnicity.

中文翻译：

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高脂食品与羞耻的内在联系及其与饮食失调症状的联系：种族/民族的调节作用

背景

文献中有趣的辩论是关于种族/民族的作用，不仅作为饮食失调（ED）的危险因素，而且还作为其他危险因素与ED症状之间关系的调节者。探索了以下研究问题：种族/民族是否缓和了高脂食品可耻的内在信念与ED症状之间的关系？

方法

约15,000名（N = 14,964）志愿者（67.7％的白人，7.7％的亚洲人，7.4％的西班牙裔，6.9％的黑人）完成了内隐联想测验（IAT），以测量高脂（相对于低脂）食物与高脂食物之间的隐含联想。在2011年至2017年之间在Project Implicit心理健康网站（https://implicit.harvard.edu）上感到可耻（相对于可接受）。ED症状和人口统计学是通过自我报告来衡量的。

结果

种族/民族缓和了IAT与ED症状之间的关系（β= 0.087，p = .002），并针对BMI，年龄，性别，教育程度进行了调整，以使IAT与白人中的ED症状相关（r  = 0.113，p  < .001），西班牙裔（r  = 0.086，p  = .004）和亚洲人（r  = 0.097，p  = .001），但不是黑人（r  = 0.056，p  = .071）。

讨论

尽管影响大小很小，但研究结果表明，某些种族/族裔人群患ED的危险因素可能有所不同。未来的研究应使用前瞻性设计来检查隐性偏倚是否实际上代表了ED症状的危险因素，以及这是否因种族/民族而有所不同。