Socially driven eating and restriction in the eating disorders.

The aims of this study were: to develop a measure to examine the relationship between socially driven eating and specific eating behaviours; to examine whether different social situations increase or decrease eating in different diagnostic groups; and to determine whether dimensional links exist between responses to social triggers and different aspects of eating pathology. A clinical group of 107 eating-disordered women and 143 nonclinical women completed a measure of socially driven eating and restriction (the Social Eating Scale, or SES) and the Eating Disorders Inventory. The SES had good psychometric properties.