this study will assist in the effort to more fully understand the general sexual abuse phenomena as well as its consequences.
While existing research indicates that a substantial percent of women with eating disorders have experienced childhood sexual abuse (e.g., Mallinckrodt, McCreary & Robertson, 1995; Tobin, Molteni, & Elin, 1995), most theories of eating disorder do not even include this variable into their etiological models (Sue, Sue & Sue, 1994). Rather, eating disorders have been discussed as due to: (1) the sociocultural demand for thinness in females producing a preoccupation with weight (Yager, Landsverk & Edelstein, 1987); (2) the value system of Western culture (Ruderman & Besbeas, 1992)--this because eating disorders are only found in Western cultures; and (3) low self-esteem which equates thinness with attractiveness (Silverstein & Perdue, 1988).
Indeed, there is considerable debate regarding a possible connection between eating disorders and sexual abuse. For example, Conners and Morse (1993) as well as Pope and Hudson (1992) conducted comprehensive reviews of the literature, concluding that there is no support for any causal connection between eating disorders and sexual abuse.
On the other hand, many theorists disagree with this view.
Schaaf and McCanne (1994), for example, postulate that eating disorder develops in sexually abused women due to its affect on expectations and identification of emotional states. This speculation was based on their research examining the relationships among childhood sexual and physical abuse, body image disturbance (BID), and eating disorder symptomatology (EDS).
In Schaaf and McCanne's (1994) study, subjects were comprised of three history of abuse groups: sexually abused before the age of 13 years (n = 29), physically abused before the age of 13 years (n = 32), and no history of abuse (n = 29). All subjects completed measures of EDS, psychological factors tho...