The purpose of this dissertation was to explore relationships among symptomatic and asymptomatic eating disordered women, utilizing self-report instruments that measure object relations impairment, attitudes toward eating, and sociocultural influences. Comparative data was obtained using 4 subscales from the BORRTI-0 and 4 subscales from the SATAQ-3, along with demographic, historical data to determine object relations deficits and sociocultural influences on eating behaviors. Two self-report surveys and an eating disorder inventory with demographic data were administered to 200 female university students between the ages of 18 and 45. Participants were given a raffle ticket to win a gift card as an incentive to complete protocols. Mean BMI scores were assessed and sample t-tests were used to determine the mean score differences between the asymptomatic and symptomatic groups on 4 object relations variables of the BORRTI-O. The SATAQ-3, which measured the extent that sociocultural influences had on the women's appearance, and eating attitude scores from the EDI-3-RF were entered into SPSS for statistical analysis. Out of 200 participants, 54 women emerged as meeting the criteria for eating disorder referral. They comprised the eating disorder symptomatic group, and the 146 women not meeting criteria were placed in the asymptomatic group. In all domains of the SATAQ-3, symptomatic women had statistically significant sociocultural deficits. However, on the BORRTI-O, all but one domain were significant, as symptomatic women were not revealed to have social incompetence.

The results indicated that object relations deficits, including parental messages contributed toward predisposing symptomatic eating disordered women to extremes in eating behaviors as well as deprivation. Additionally, sociocultural messages pertaining to body image and beauty had strong influences on symptomatic women, further exacerbating maladaptive eating behaviors and impaired self-image. The BORRTI-O subscale, Social Incompetence, was the singular domain pertaining to social functioning which did not emerge as significant. It is believed that the population of college-aged women had well developed adaptive social skills and heightened social consciousness due to the campus setting.