An application of psychosocial frameworks for eating disorder risk during the postpartum period: A review and future dir
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REVIEW ARTICLE
An application of psychosocial frameworks for eating disorder risk during the postpartum period: A review and future directions Katherine Thompson 1 Received: 11 March 2020 / Accepted: 23 June 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The postpartum period may be a particular window of vulnerability for eating disorder symptoms given changes to body shape and weight that women experience. However, no quantitative studies have identified risk factors for postpartum eating disorder symptoms, and current psychosocial frameworks of risk may be missing key elements unique to this period. This manuscript reviews existing quantitative and qualitative literature regarding the developmental trajectory of eating disorder symptoms during the perinatal period and proposes an application of three psychosocial models of eating disorder risk (objectification theory, the tripartite influence model of body image and eating disturbances, and social comparison theory) to the postpartum period. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative literature, this paper identifies novel postpartum-specific factors that should be included for consideration in psychosocial models (e.g., self-oriented body comparison and pressure to achieve a prepregnancy weight and shape). This review is the first to theorize potential postpartum-specific risk factors for postpartum eating disorder symptoms. Prior models of eating disorder risk omit key psychosocial factors that are unique to the postpartum period. Other limitations of prior research relate to measurement and methodology. This critical window of vulnerability has been largely ignored in the quantitative literature and necessitates further research. Keywords Psychosocial framework; Objectification theory . Tripartite model . Social comparison theory . Eating disorders; Postpartum
Introduction Researchers have long understood the importance of psychosocial frameworks for understanding the development and maintenance of eating disorder symptoms (see FitzsimmonsCraft 2011 for review). These models have been helpful in understanding risk for periods during which females experience an increase in eating disorder symptoms—for example, puberty and adolescence (Rodgers et al. 2014). One period during which females seem to be vulnerable to increased eating disorder symptoms that has not been conceptualized within psychosocial frameworks is the postpartum period. Although previously known risk factors of eating disorder symptoms may be relevant to women during the postpartum
* Katherine Thompson [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA
period, this paper applies three different psychosocial frameworks (objectification theory, the tripartite model of influence for body image and eating disturbances, and social comparison theory) to the postpartum period by proposing potential postpartum-specific factors that may be unique to women during this developmental perio
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