An Examination of the Interrelations among Emotion Regulation, Orthorexia Nervosa, and Disordered Eating

Authors

Zahra Nazarimehrvarani, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Psychology

First Advisor's Name

Leslie D. Frazier

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Kyle D. Bennett

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Third Advisor's Name

Shannon Pruden

Third Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Robert Lickliter

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Fifth Advisor's Name

Martha Pelaez

Fifth Advisor's Committee Title

committee member

Keywords

Orthorexia Nervosa, Emotion Regulation, Disordered Eating

Date of Defense

3-29-2023

Abstract

Orthorexia nervosa, a pathological condition that is associated with eating disorders, can lead to more serious health-related complications. Despite the increasing scientific research about orthorexia, its classification and diagnostic criteria are not well-established. Also, it is not clear whether the co-action of orthorexic behaviors with other factors increase the risks for individuals who are affected. The main purpose of this dissertation was to contribute to the understanding of orthorexia and explain how it is associated to emotion regulation and disordered eating.

This dissertation is comprised of two studies. The first study consisted of a scoping review aimed to examine the current literature on the association between emotion dysregulation and orthorexia. Using JBI methodology and PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews, we reviewed a total of nine studies that met our inclusion criteria. All of the reviewed studies reported some levels of significant association between emotion dysregulation and orthorexic behaviors. It is suggested that individuals with poor emotion regulation may develop orthorexic tendencies as a strategy to minimize their negative emotions. These findings emphasized the role of emotion dysregulation in association with orthorexia and more complicated conditions such as eating disorders.

The second study aimed to investigate the interrelations among emotion dysregulation, orthorexia, and disordered eating. Guided by our scoping review results, we expected to find significant associations between emotion dysregulation and orthorexia. Additionally, following extant literature, we predicted that emotion dysregulation would be associated to disordered eating. Finally, it was hypothesized orthorexia would mediate the association between emotion dysregulation and disordered eating. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze a secondary data set collected from a large survey study (N = 1028). The results of the analysis showed that several subscales of emotion dysregulation were directly associated with the subscales of orthorexia and disordered eating. Additionally, our results demonstrated the mediating role of the subscales of orthorexia nervosa on the association between the subscales of emotion dysregulation and the subscales of disordered eating. Similar to previous findings, our results emphasized the effect of emotion dysregulation on disordered eating and orthorexic behaviors. Our findings have implications for transdiagnostic prevention/intervention programs.

Identifier

FIDC011006

ORCID

0000-0002-3373-0398

Recommended Citation

Nazarimehrvarani, Zahra, "An Examination of the Interrelations among Emotion Regulation, Orthorexia Nervosa, and Disordered Eating" (2023). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5317.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5317