Rumination, but not suppression contributes to gender effects in non-clinical disordered eating behaviour

Abstract

Background: The dysregulation of negative emotions is strongly associated with disordered eating behavior (DEB). Even in non-clinical populations, women are more prone to show DEB than men. Moreover, gender differences are frequently reported in use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies (ERS). This study aims at identifying, whether two maladaptive ERS – rumination and emotional suppression – mediate gender differences in DE in a non-clinical sample. Method: A total of 271 participants (93 male) without purging behavior or underweight completed an online-questionnaire about the use of general ERS, eating concerns and eating behavior. The proposed mediation models were examined using the PROCESS Macro for SPSS, with 1000 bias-corrected bootstrap samples, while controlling for age and BMI. Findings: Women reported significantly more symptoms of DEB and rumination, whereas men tended to use emotional suppression. Rumination partially mediated the association between gender and eating pathology (indirect effect b = 0.12, 95% CI [0.04, 0.21]), while no mediation effect of emotional suppression on disordered eating was found. Discussion: The results are in line with research on gender differences in depression and anxiety and extend findings to DEB in a non-clinical sample. The relation between eating pathology and rumination may be reciprocal and should consequently be considered in therapeutic interventions. As DEB becomes increasingly frequent in men, it would be interesting to investigate in a male sample with more severe symptoms, if the role of rumination remains essential or if different underlying mechanisms contribute to eating dysregulations among men.