AUTHOR=Elran-Barak Roni , Dror Tzipi , Goldschmidt Andrea B. , Teachman Bethany A. 

TITLE=The Implicit Association of High-Fat Food and Shame Among Women Recovered From Eating Disorders

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01068

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01068

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Despite the growing literature about recovery from eating disorders (EDs), it is still unknown if women who report being recovered from EDs present with differing implicit attitudes about high-fat (vs. low-fat) food relative to women who report having a current ED and women who report never having had an ED.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Female volunteers (<italic>N</italic> = 2,785) to the Project Implicit Mental Health (PIMH) website (<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://implicit.harvard.edu/</ext-link>) were divided into three ED groups: current ED (<italic>n</italic> = 335), prior ED (<italic>n</italic> = 393), and healthy controls (<italic>n</italic> = 1,843). Participants completed, between 2016 and 2017, a background questionnaire, together with the Implicit Association Test (IAT), measuring implicit associations between high-fat (vs. low-fat) food and shame (vs. acceptableness). Linear regression models were conducted to examine cross-sectional differences between groups.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Women with prior EDs had stronger implicit associations relative to healthy controls (<italic>p</italic> = 0.041) and similar implicit associations relative to women with current EDs (<italic>p</italic> = 0.424).</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>The implicit association between high-fat food and shame may not diminish over time among women with EDs. Future longitudinal studies are warranted to clarify whether an experience of EDs may leave a “scar,” manifested in specific implicit associations, that may potentially lead to recurrence after remission.</p></sec>