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Objectifying employment linked to anxiety, disordered eating

Anxiety and disordered eating patterns were associated with working in sexually objectifying restaurant environments, such as Tilted Kilt and Twin Peaks, according to recent findings.

“We want to raise awareness about the negative impact that these types of restaurant environments may have on female servers,” Dawn Szymanski, PhD, of University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said in a press release. “We want the public to use this data in personal decisions about whether to support or not support these types of restaurants.”

To assess associations between sexually objectifying restaurant environments and anxiety and disordered eating, researchers analyzed data from online surveys among 252 waitresses working in restaurants in the U.S. Study participants were recruited via Facebook. Surveys assessed sexually objectifying restaurant environments, organizational power, personal power, rumination, anxiety, and disordered eating and body mass.

Findings indicated a positive correlation between higher levels of sexually objectifying restaurant environments and anxiety and disordered eating.

Further, researchers found a four-chain mediation model that indicated higher levels of sexually objectifying restaurant environments were associated with anxiety and disordered eating directly and indirectly via les organizational power, less personal power and control, and more rumination.

Rumination was directly and independently associated with sexually objectifying restaurant environments and a lack of organizational power.

“Our study extends and supports feminist theoretical models by demonstrating that [sexually objectifying restaurant environments] are linked to more anxiety and disordered eating among waitresses,” the researchers wrote. “Our findings link both contextual and intrapersonal factors to understanding waitresses’ mental health problems. These findings underscore the need to implement both system-level and individual-level interventions to combat the existence of [sexually objectifying restaurant environments] and the negative effects they may have on women who work in the industry.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.