Information-processing correlates of reported sexual abuse in eating-disordered and comparison women

A history of sexual abuse during childhood or adulthood is reported by a large number of eating-disordered and nonclinical women. However, the cognitive consequences of such abuse are not fully understood. An adaptation of the Stroop test is described, examining information-processing correlates of reported sexual abuse and of clinicians' judgments of the relevance of that abuse to the formulation of cases. Words related to sexual abuse impaired color-naming in eating-disordered and comparison women who reported a history of such abuse. This Stroop interference effect was greater in those eating-disordered women where the abuse was judged to be relevant to their psychopathology. It was also associated with the characteristics of the abuse (use of force, identity of abuser, time since the abuse). Finally, the Stroop interference effect was associated with the degree of bulimic psychopathology in the eating-disordered women who reported abuse. In particular, the frequency of binging was significantly greater in those eating-disordered women who had reported abuse, but that difference was a product of the correlation of the two variables with the degree of information processing bias. A two-stage model of cognitive reaction to sexual abuse is proposed, integrating these effects with the existing literature. The utility of this measure as a research and clinical tool requires further consideration in other clinical groups.