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With age comes responsibility: changes in stigma for boys/men with bulimia nervosa

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Bulimia nervosa has a strong developmental component and affects men and women. However, the risk in men is unique in that it often includes other comorbid mental illnesses (depression, substance use) and may be exacerbated by longer delays between diagnoses and treatment relative to women. Furthermore, men may not be getting the treatment needed to successfully cope. Attribution theory was used as a theoretical lens to examine stigma towards boys/men with bulimia nervosa. The goal of the current study was to investigate this stigma across a developmental trajectory (from ages 12 to 24) to explore if/when stigma onset (causal responsibility) and stigma offset (coping responsibility) move between a parent and child.

Methods

Undergraduate students (n = 360) were randomly assigned to read a vignette describing a boy/man of varying ages (12, 15, 18, 21, and 24) with bulimia nervosa and then complete stigma ratings for both the boy/man as well as his mother and father.

Results

As hypothesized, the younger boy was rated as less responsible for onset and less to blame relative to the older man. Contrary to hypotheses, ratings of parents did not show any age-related differences in stigma. Also as hypothesized, mothers were rated as more responsible for onset and offset relative to fathers.

Conclusions

Findings highlight the developmental component of the stigma as it pertains to the boy/man but suggest the associative stigma for the parents might not change over time, suggesting multiple avenues for research and stigma reduction efforts as they apply to boys/men.

Level of evidence

Level I: Evidence obtained from: at least one properly designed randomized controlled trials; systematic reviews and meta-analyses; experimental studies.

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Funding

This work was supported by the San Diego State University (Summer Undergraduate Research Program (no number).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA, 92182-4611, USA

    Allison A. Vaughn & Joshua D. Lowe

Authors
  1. Allison A. Vaughn
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  2. Joshua D. Lowe
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Allison A. Vaughn.

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Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at San Diego State University (HS-2018-0144), and all participants were treated in accordance with the American Psychological Association’s ethical guidelines (American Psychological Association, 2010).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained by all individual participants included in the study.

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This research was supported by the San Diego State University’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program, awarded to Allison A. Vaughn for the training of Joshua D. Lowe.

This article is part of topical collection on Males and Eating and Weight Disorders.

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Vaughn, A.A., Lowe, J.D. With age comes responsibility: changes in stigma for boys/men with bulimia nervosa. Eat Weight Disord 25, 1525–1532 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-019-00786-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-019-00786-6

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