Momentary perceptions and effects of interpersonal interactions: The role of eating pathology

Eating disorder symptoms have been associated with increased dependency, self-silencing, lower social competence and increased self-concept reactivity in response to interpersonal stress. We conducted an analysis of the processes that lead to interpersonal reactivity in individuals with elevated eating pathology. For one week, participants responded to a PDA-based survey after every interpersonal interaction lasting 5 minutes or longer. The survey assessed perceptions of the interaction, mood, self-esteem, and body satisfaction. We hypothesized that individuals with elevated levels of eating pathology would report more negative interactions, and respond to these interactions with greater decreases in self-esteem, mood, and body satisfaction. We found that bulimic pathology was related to lower average levels of warm and positive perceptions. We also found that bulimia significantly moderated the relationship between dominant perceptions and self-esteem, dominant perceptions and positive mood, and positive/negative perceptions and positive mood. Non-bulimic eating pathology did not produce any significant results.