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Gender, General Strain Theory, Negative Emotions, and Disordered Eating

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

Much of the prior work on General Strain Theory (GST) has focused on how strain and negative emotions interrelate to produce criminal—especially violent—activity. Very little research has extended GST to examine other types of non-criminal, negative behavior, such as self-harming behaviors associated with disordered eating, a traditionally female-specific self-directed outcome. Using a sample of 338 young adults (54% female, 95% white), this article applies GST to disordered eating by examining how strain and negative emotions relate to this particular outcome across gender. Findings indicate that two types of strain measures predict depressive symptoms among males and females, that inequitable strainful experiences relate to disordered eating among females but not males, that depressive symptoms but not anger increase disordered eating for both males and females, and that membership in Greek organizations (sororities or fraternities) is associated with disordered eating but only for males. Implications for theory and directions for future research are highlighted.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 634 W. Call Street, Tallahassee, Florida, 32306-1127, USA

    Nicole Leeper Piquero & Alex R. Piquero

  2. Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University, 923 West Franklin Street, PO Box 842028, Richmond, VA, 23284-2028, USA

    Kristan Fox

  3. Academic Affairs, Loyola University New Orleans, MA 301, PO Box 0921, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA

    George Capowich

  4. Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, 4111, Australia

    Paul Mazerolle

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  1. Nicole Leeper Piquero
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  2. Kristan Fox
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  3. Alex R. Piquero
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  4. George Capowich
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  5. Paul Mazerolle
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Correspondence to Nicole Leeper Piquero.

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Piquero, N.L., Fox, K., Piquero, A.R. et al. Gender, General Strain Theory, Negative Emotions, and Disordered Eating. J Youth Adolescence 39, 380–392 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9466-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-009-9466-0

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