(PS7-27) Do Your Undergraduate Studies Reflect Eating Habits? (EBOCS)

Eating disorders (EDs) are characterized by body image disturbances and/or disturbances in eating. Disordered eating (DE) may include ED behaviors (e.g., binge eating, self-induced vomiting, restriction) but at a lower severity. DE is a risk factor for the development of an ED. While there is robust research demonstrating women, first-year college students, and those who are academically high achieving are at a greater risk for developing DE, more research is needed to identify those who may be at risk for DE. One particular group that may be of interest is first-generation immigrants. Previous research has demonstrated that some first and second-generation immigrants may be at lower risk relative to native populations while other studies suggest that first-generation immigrants are at significantly higher risk of developing an ED, however, research is still needed to examine young college-aged adults of various immigration statuses on the northeastern seaboard. This study hopes to provide literature on DE prevalence in college students based on other characteristics such as their major. It is hypothesized that students with STEM-related majors will have greater DE than other college majors, due to their increased difficulty in coursework, and thus an inferred higher level of stress level, and hence a suspected higher rate of ED onset. Participants are N=824 college students from a northeastern university, majority female (65.2%), majority white (45.9%), and 22.1% of participants identified as Hispanic/Latino. Participants completed the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), the Eating Pathology Symptoms Inventory (EPSI), the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 scale (GAD-7). A linear regression was run to examine if one’s college major could serve as a predictor for DE, and if so, which majors? As depression and anxiety are known to be comorbid with EDs, they were controlled for within the statistical model. Results suggest that there is a significant relationship between students’ college majors and the EDE-Q (b = .066, SE = .025, p = .034). Conversely, college majors and scores on the EPSI subscales did not yield a significant relationship. From a comparison of means of the EDE-Q within the two most popular college major fields (STEM, Social Sciences), scores for STEM students were x̄ = 1.70 (n = 189. Social Science students had x̄ = 2.22 (n = 189) for the EDE-Q. Taken together results from this study suggest, that Social Science majors (e.g. Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Communications, etc.) may be at more risk for DE, thus prevention efforts may be best spent with students in these majors.