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Is season of birth related to disordered eating and personality in women with eating disorders?

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Abstract

We assessed the relation between season of birth and eating disorder symptoms and personality characteristics in a sample of 880 women with eating disorders and 580 controls from two Price Foundation Studies. Eating disorder symptoms were assessed using the Structured Interview of Anorexic and Bulimic Disorders and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. Personality traits were assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory and the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. Date of birth was obtained from a sociodemographic questionnaire. No significant differences were observed 1) in season of birth across eating disorder subtypes and controls; nor 2) for any clinical or personality variables and season of birth. We found no evidence of season of birth variation in eating disorders symptoms or personality traits. Contributing to previous conflicting findings, the present results do not support a season of birth hypothesis for eating disorders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maggie L Walker Governor’s School for Government and International Studies, Richmond, VA, USA

    N. K. Shuman

  2. Department of Psychiatry’, Bellvitge University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain

    I. Krug

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1st floor Neurosciences Hospital, 101 Manning Drive, CB #7160, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7160, USA

    M. Maxwell, A. Poyastro Pinheiro, L. M. Thornton, M. LaVia & C. M. Bulik PhD

  4. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina at Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA

    T. Brewerton

  5. Center of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    W. H. Berrettini

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA

    H. Brandt & S. Crawford

  7. Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    S. Crow

  8. Department of Psychiatry, University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany

    M. M. Fichter

  9. Roseneck Hospital for Behavioral Medicine, Prien, Germany

    M. M. Fichter

  10. New York Presbyterian Hospital-Westchester Division, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, White Plains, NY, USA

    K. A. Halmi

  11. Eating Recovery Center, Denver, CO, Germany

    C. Johnson

  12. Department of Psychiatry, Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada

    A. S. Kaplan & D. Blake Woodside

  13. Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    P. Keel

  14. Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Fargo, ND, USA

    J. Mitchell

  15. Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Fargo, ND, USA

    J. Mitchell

  16. Department of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Biotechnologies, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    A. Rotondo

  17. Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    M. Strober

  18. Department of Psychiatry, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

    W. H. Kaye

  19. Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    C. M. Bulik PhD

  20. Ciber Fisiopatologia de la Obesidad y Nutricion (CIBERobn), Instituto Salud Carlos III, Spain

    I. Krug

Authors
  1. N. K. Shuman
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  2. I. Krug
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  3. M. Maxwell
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  4. A. Poyastro Pinheiro
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  5. T. Brewerton
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  6. L. M. Thornton
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  7. W. H. Berrettini
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  8. H. Brandt
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  9. S. Crawford
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  10. S. Crow
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  11. M. M. Fichter
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  12. K. A. Halmi
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  13. C. Johnson
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  14. A. S. Kaplan
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  15. P. Keel
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  16. M. LaVia
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  17. J. Mitchell
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  18. A. Rotondo
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  19. M. Strober
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  20. D. Blake Woodside
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  21. W. H. Kaye
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  22. C. M. Bulik PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. M. Bulik PhD.

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Shuman, N.K., Krug, I., Maxwell, M. et al. Is season of birth related to disordered eating and personality in women with eating disorders?. Eat Weight Disord 15, e186–e189 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03325297

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03325297

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