BODY IMAGE AND DISORDERED EATING IN ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS

This study explored the relations between eating, weight, and shape (EWS) concerns and romantic relationships in college women and their partners. Eighty-eight heterosexual couples (176 individuals) completed two assessments spaced two months apart. Results indicated that neither women's relationship functioning nor perceptions of their partners' desired changes in their bodies predicted changes in women's EWS concerns. However, after controlling for women's values, men's relationship functioning, as well as men's desired change in their partners' bodies, predicted changes in women's EWS concerns. There was partial support for the idea that EWS constructs would predict changes in relationship functioning; specifically, several types of women's EWS concerns predicted changes in women's and men's relationship outcomes two months later. Additionally, after controlling for women's perceptions, men's desired change in their partners' bodies predicted change in women's relationship outcomes. Overall, this study found some support for the bidirectional nature of relations between women's EWS concerns and their romantic relationship functioning, and it highlighted the importance of obtaining men's reports when exploring these relations.