Feminine Gender Norms Among Women with Eating Disorders: Findings from an Exploratory Pilot Study

Eating disorders are multifactorial mental health conditions that predominantly affect adolescent girls and young women and constitute a major public health concern due to their severe and often chronic impact on physical, psychological, and psychosocial functioning. Although existing research suggests that gender-related constructs and traditional gender roles may be associated with the development and expression of eating disorders, empirical evidence using validated measures remains limited. Accordingly, the present study examines health-related variables from a gender-sensitive perspective in a clinical sample of women diagnosed with an eating disorder. Forty women aged 14 to 50 years completed an assessment protocol including measures of gender norms, eating disorder symptoms, mental health, and self-perceived overall health. Results indicated that poorer mental health and self-perceived overall health were significantly associated with higher levels of eating disorder symptomatology. In an exploratory hierarchical regression analysis, overall conformity to traditional feminine gender norms was associated with eating disorder symptomatology after accounting for health-related variables. Exploratory analyses of individual gender norm dimensions indicated that only a small number of associations remained statistically significant after applying a false discovery rate correction. In sum, within the limitations of a modest and heterogeneous clinical sample, the findings suggest that conformity to traditional feminine gender norms is associated with less favorable health indicators and greater eating disorder symptomatology among women with EDs. These results underscore the potential value of incorporating gender-informed perspectives into future research and clinical reflection, while highlighting the need for replication in larger and longitudinally designed studies.