Delaney Kehm

Psych 101 1X1

Reaction Paper #2
12/9/20

Reaction Paper #2

The case study, Eating Disorder Recovery in Men: A Pilot Study studies men with and

without a history of eating disorders. More specifically, men who have fully recovered, partially

recovered, and have existing eating disorders. The reason for this study was to compare the

requirements for fully recovered men to women who had fully recovered from eating

disorders.The study involved thirty-six adult male participants, who had an existing or history of

an eating disorder. There were also twenty-seven adult males who did not have any history of

eating disorders. In the beginning of this procedure, there were sixty-three participants, but

during the follow-up in the twelve months, only fifty-eight of these men would participate. The

methods of this study involved asking these participants a multiple array of survey questions

about how each individual was recovering physically, cognitively, and behaviorally from their

eating disorder. The study was done in a controlled environment, as participants were told to go

to a University campus for a few hours to be interviewed and diagnosed. The researchers would

also weigh and measure the height of each individual. In the next twelve months the participants

would come back to do the same procedure to measure how they were recovering.

When organizing the study, the researchers would use multiple scales to measure their

results. The EAT scale would measure any attitudes related to eating disorder behavior.They also

used Body Shame Subscale, Thin/Low Fat Internalization Scale, Muscular/Athletic

Internalization Scale, and others. All of the coefficient alphas are more than .8, meaning that the

coefficient alpha found during some of the tests results were consistent with different answers on

the tests. Among the participants, it was discovered that out of the thirty-six participants, only

fifteen had met the criteria for an eating disorder. While other participants met requirements for
Delaney Kehm
Psych 101 1X1
Reaction Paper #2
12/9/20

other disorders. “...20% met criteria for AN, 27% for BN, 7% for BED, and 47% for OSFED.

Seven met criteria for partial recovery—physical and behavioral recovery but not cognitive

recovery. Five met criteria for full recovery—physical, behavioral, and cognitive recovery.”

(Bardone-Cone et al, 2019, 1374).

In the concluding results, there wasn’t a comparable difference between those with a no

history of eating disorders, and those who were fully recovered. This showed that these two

groups of men had about the same acceptance of their body. The goal of the study was to

compare eating disorder recoveries between men and women. Some of the results that were

found were women's standards vary when it comes to becoming partially and fully recovered.

Compared to men, there was not a fine line between partially recovered and fully recovered in

the study with women. Another difference between the two, was that in a full year sixty percent

of the men had met full recovery where the women had met full recovery at eighty percent.

The methods of this study were ethical and full of good intentions, studying a topic that is

not talked about enough. However, I do think their methods were broad. With the participants in

a controlled environment, the possibility of feeling uncomfortable could influence the answers to

their questions to be dishonest, giving false results for the surveys. Despite this, their results

across multiple tests and scales, were beneficial towards producing positive findings. I agree that

the study would have been more refined if there was a larger population of participants. It was

heavily stressed how critically important for more studies to be done on this topic, as there isn’t a

determined norm for recovery in males in the United States. This study is incredibly essential to

men suffering from eating disorders, discussing and normalizing the subject, would help men

feel comfortable and have the courage to talk about these issues.
Delaney Kehm
Psych 101 1X1
Reaction Paper #2
12/9/20

Work Cited Page:

Bardone-Cone, Anna M., Shelby Johnson, Thomas J. Raney, Nancy Zucker, and Hunna J.
Watson. "Eating Disorder Recover in Men: A Pilot Study." International Journal of Eating
Disorders 52, no. 12 (December 2019): 1370-78. EsbscoHost (10.1002). https://doi.org/10.1002.