Abstract

Introduction: Binge eating disorder is an eating disorder that a large number of people suffer from. The term is utilized to explain a situation, in which the person goes through recurrent excessive eating episodes, or binging, while not regularly engaging in the compensatory behaviors to avoid weight gain. It is believed that binge eating is a way to alleviate or escape undesired and sad emotions. It is estimated that half of the people with binge eating diagnosis suffer from obesity. Concerns about obesity come from the fact that being overweight may enhance the risk of health issues namely diabetes, heart diseases, and specific types of cancers. The Dual pathway model seems to have a promising tendency to play a notable role in understanding the causal mechanisms that underlie eating disorders, emphasizing the impacts of socio-cultural influences, dietary restraint, and negative influence altogether. This model suggests that body dissatisfaction might result in binge eating. The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the dual pathway model of binge eating according to the dual pathway model framework with two suggested additions: self-esteem, and fear of negative evaluation. Method: The two variables, fear of negative evaluation and self-esteem, were added to the dual pathway model. The modified version of the model was utilized for the samples including 252 female university students with BMIs more than 25. BMI, Cooper’s body shape questionnaire, Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale, Dutch eating behavior questionnaire-restrained eating subscale, a brief version of fear of negative evaluation scale, Stice and Bearman's’ noticed sociocultural pressure scale, Stice and Agrass’ ideal-body stereotype scale, and Gormally’s binge eating scale were applied. Results: According to the results, neither binge eating nor self-esteem could be predicted by restrained eating. Fear of negative evaluation could predict binge eating through body dissatisfaction. Besides, binge eating could be inversely predicted by self-esteem. Conclusion: Fear of negative evaluation is a vulnerability factor that enhances body image concerns, decreases self-esteem, and leads to binge eating. Following flexible and moderate diets has a good effect on self-esteem and is pertinent to lower levels of binge eating‎.