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Harrington E, Abramovitz SM, Shipherd JC. PTSD mediates the relationship between MST and eating behavior. Poster session presented at: International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Annual Meeting; 2009 Nov 5; Atlanta, GA.
Research has demonstrated that PTSD mediates the association between sexual trauma and eating pathology in women (Holzer et al., 2008). However, this has not been studied in men or military sexual trauma (MST) survivors. We tested a PTSD mediational model in 352 male and 306 female Marines and former Marines. Among men, MST significantly predicted PTSD symptoms (beta = .46***) and eating in response to trauma (beta = .29***). Once PTSD symptoms were entered into the equation, the association between MST and eating in response to trauma remained statistically significant and was not significantly reduced (beta = .28***; Sobel test statistic = 1.14), suggesting that PTSD did not mediate the relationship between MST and eating in response to trauma. Among women, MST significantly predicted PTSD symptoms (beta = .19**) and eating in response to trauma (beta = .30***). However, once PTSD symptoms were entered into the equation, the association between MST and eating in response to trauma was significantly reduced but remained statistically significant (beta = .27***; Sobel = 2.12*). This suggests that PTSD may partially mediate the relationship between MST and eating in response to trauma for women in this sample. These findings suggest interesting sex differences in how MST and PTSD symptoms influence eating behavior.
