Bulimic Syndromes: Secular and Longitudinal Trends, 2001-2002

This study was begun in 1982 by a researcher at Radcliffe who surveyed Harvard and Radcliffe freshmen and seniors to determine rates of eating disorders and their symptoms. In 1992, a professor named Todd Heatherton distributed a similar survey to Harvard/Radcliffe freshman and seniors to determine how eating disordered behaviors among college students had changed over time across cohorts (secular trends). Additionally, he re-contacted the alumni who had participated in the study as undergraduates and gave them a similar questionnaire; the purpose of doing this was to evaluate how these behaviors had changed over time within the sample (longitudinal trends). Ten years later, the study was initiated again, and this is the first time that anyone will have such data collected over a twenty-year period. In the spring of 2002, surveys were mailed to Harvard freshmen and seniors, and alumni were re-contacted from both the 1982 and 1992 cohorts. An additional element was added to the design of the study: clinical interviews were conducted with a subset of participants who completed surveys in order to establish the accuracy of information collected on surveys and correlates of disordered eating patterns. The paper data from this study are not yet available for use

本研究由拉德克利夫学院（Radcliffe）的一名研究员于1982年启动，针对哈佛大学（Harvard）与拉德克利夫学院的大一及大四学生开展调查，以明确进食障碍及其症状的发生率。1992年，托德·希瑟顿（Todd Heatherton）教授向哈佛及拉德克利夫学院的大一、大四学生发放了同类问卷，旨在探究大学生群体的进食紊乱行为随队列推移产生的变化（长期趋势）。此外，他重新联系了曾以本科生身份参与本研究的校友，并向其发放了相同问卷，以此评估样本内群体的行为随时间产生的变化（纵向趋势）。十年后，该研究再次启动，这也是全球首次获取跨度达二十年的同类研究数据。2002年春季，研究团队向哈佛大一及大四学生邮寄了问卷，并重新联系了1982年与1992年队列的校友。本次研究设计新增了一项内容：对完成问卷的部分参与者开展临床访谈，以验证问卷收集信息的准确性，以及进食紊乱模式的相关影响因素。本研究的纸质数据目前尚未对外开放使用。