Sorority Women and Eating Pathology

The present study examined disordered eating, sorority social norms regarding thebody and thinness, personal values regarding the body and thinness, body dissatisfaction,thin ideal internalization, fat talk, negative affect, and positive affect among sorority andnon-sorority women. The aims of this study were to discern the underlying factorstructures of the sorority/group social norms questionnaires and the personal valuesregarding the body and thinness questionnaire, investigate disordered eating amongsorority and non-sorority women over time, and further examine the impact of socialnorms on sorority women's body and eating attitudes and behaviors. The results of thisresearch illustrated three main findings. First, sorority women did not differ from nonsororitywomen on eating pathology. Second, fat talk, personal values regarding the bodyand thinness, and body mass index predicted increased disordered eating over time in thegeneral college population of women. Third, the sorority and group social norms scale, aswell as the personal values regarding the body and thinness measure, were all developedand showed evidence for validation in this research. Additionally, the sorority/groupsocial norms questionnaires and the personal values regarding the body and thinnessquestionnaire demonstrated evidence for validation.