Sexual victimization and adolescent weight regulation practices: a test across three community based samples

This study had four objectives: 1) to examine the association between sexual victimization and weight regulation across three samples of adolescent girls, 2) to assess whether sexual victimization is associated with more extreme forms of weight regulation in girls, 3) to discern whether sexual victimization has implications for the use of multiple forms of weight regulation, and 4) to address the role of physical victimization in explaining these relationships.

Data from three separate samples of 9th-12th graders were used to test these hypotheses. Girls from the upper Midwest responded to survey questions related to victimization and weight regulation in a largely urban sample (N = 2,086), a rural sample (N = 2,629), and a statewide sample (N = 966).

Logistic regression revealed that sexual victimization was consistently associated with weight regulation in adolescent girls, independent of the effects of physical victimization. In the urban sample, being sexually victimized was associated with an increase in the probability of purging by 18% relative to not being sexually victimized. Sexual victimization was associated more strongly with extreme forms of weight regulation and significantly discriminated whether girls would choose multiple weight regulation forms.

Sexual victimization contributes unique variance to the probability that girls will practice weight regulation techniques. Data from three independent samples confirms that being violated sexually places girls at risk for various health compromising eating behaviors.