The moderating role of negative urgency on the prospective association between dietary restraint and binge eating

It is well documented that negative urgency, a personality trait characterized by a tendency to act impulsively in the face of negative emotions, and dietary restraint independently increase risk to binge eat; however, it is unclear how these factors interact to alter risk for such behavior. It may be that individuals high on negative urgency, who also engage in dietary restraint, are at a greater risk to binge eat than individuals low on negative urgency. Accordingly, we sought to investigate whether negative urgency moderated the prospective association between dietary restraint and binge eating frequency among a sample of college women. We hypothesized that women who engaged in dietary restraint would report higher binge eating frequencies across the first semester of college and that this effect would be strengthened among individuals higher on negative urgency. Results indicated that negative urgency moderated the prospective association between dietary restraint and binge eating frequency. This effect was found to be “protective but reactive,” such that low levels of dietary restraint protected against binge eating frequency at low to moderate levels of negative urgency, but this buffering effect was lost at high levels of negative urgency where binge eating frequency was equal across all levels of dietary restraint. These findings demonstrate that negative urgency and dietary restraint interact to differentially alter risk for binge eating frequency, and individuals high on negative urgency are at the greatest risk to engage in more frequent binge eating regardless of level of dietary restraint.