Sex Role Conflict, Social Desirability, and Eating-Disorder Attitudes and Behaviors

Abstract

The relationship of conflict between sex role ideology and sex role orientation with eating-disorder behaviors and attitudes was examined. American participants were 321 female college students who completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory (Bem. 1974), Sex Role Ideology Scale (Kalin & Tilby, 1978), and Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI; Garner, Olmsted, & Polivy, 1983). The results indicated that conflict between ideology and self-perception had little effect on responses to the Inventory. Instead, students with higher levels of self-rated social desirability and lower levels of masculinity reported higher prevalence of eating-disorder behaviors and attitudes. Analyses of sex role orientation data revealed that participants categorized as undifferentiated had the most pathological responses to the EDI. Overall, the results suggested that social desirability and masculinity, more than sex role orientation or conflict, are strongly related to eating-disorder behavior, perhaps because of a third mediating factor.