Hesse-Biber and Marino examined for relationships between patterns of eating behavior (pattern remains abnormal, eating gets better, pattern remains normal) and self-concept during the transition from high school to college and through progress through college. Based on findings, the authors concluded that the transition from high school and progression through college deflates self-esteem regardless of eating pattern. It was also concluded that drops in self-concept and assertiveness may be associated with eating problems.
Although this research had both strengths and weaknesses, the weaknesses were predominant. Strengths included the fact that measures of self-concept (and other factors) and eating disorder were standardized tests with good levels of reliability and validity. Further, the examination for association between self-concept and eating disorder was well supported as a viable avenue for research in terms of citations of earlier research.
Weaknesses with the research included the fact that there was no control group used making it possible that the pretest measures sensitized subjects to the variables of interest and thereby contributing to variance on subsequent measures. Also, there was a sizeable subject loss across the years from high school to college. From Time 1 to Time 2, over 565 subjects were lost from the original sample of size 960; and from Time 2 to Time 3, an additional 202 subjects were lost.
Hesse-Biber and Marino report that comparisons of the Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3 ratings on several demographic indices do not show differences and therefore conclude that subject mortality did not affect the sample. However, just because no differences were found for these selected measures, this does not preclude the fact of influencing coming from differences in factors that were not measured or compared.
Another weakness with the study concerned the use of the ANOVA statistic. Several additiona...