Psychological flexibility and self-concealment as predictors of disordered eating symptoms

The present cross-sectional study investigated whether self-concealment and psychological flexibility were uniquely associated with different facets of disordered eating (DE; i.e., dieting, bulimia/food preoccupation, and oral control) and whether these associations varied across gender. Participants included 621 female and 212 male college students, ages 18-24 years old. After controlling for age, ethnicity, and BMI, both selfconcealment and psychological flexibility were uniquely related to dieting. Controlling for these demographic variables, psychological flexibility, but not self-concealment, was uniquely associated with bulimia/food preoccupation. Neither self-concealment nor psychological flexibility was uniquely associated with oral control. Finally, gender moderated the association between self-concealment and dieting, suggesting that selfconcealment was relevant to dieting in the female group, but not in the male group. Limitations of the study and future directions are discussed.