ORIGINAL PAPER Investigating Vulnerability for Developing Eating Disorders in a Multi-confessional Population Rita Doumit 1 • Georges Khazen 2 • Ioanna Katsounari 3 • Chant Kazandjian 1 • JoAnn Long 4 • Nadine Zeeni 5 Received: 6 January 2015 / Accepted: 24 March 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract The present study aimed to examine the vul- nerability to eating disorders (ED) among 949 Lebanese female young adults as well as its association with stress, anxiety, depression, body image dissatisfaction (BID), dysfunctional eating, body mass index, religious affiliation (Christian, Muslim, Druze or Other), religiosity and ac- tivity level. Results showed that anxiety had the greatest effect on increasing the predisposition to ED, followed by stress level, BID, depression and restrained eating. Af- filiating as Christian was found to significantly decrease the vulnerability to developing an ED. Furthermore, the in- teraction of anxiety with intrinsic religiosity was found to have a protective role on reducing ED. The current study emphasized a buffering role of intrinsic religiosity against anxiety and ED vulnerability. Keywords Predisposition  Vulnerability  Eating disorders  Religiosity  Anxiety  Depression  Stress Introduction The rising incidence of eating disorders (ED) has become a public health concern worldwide (Derenne and Beresin 2006). A problem once limited to the West is now found to affect females in most regions of the world, including the Middle-East (Zeeni et al. 2012; Afifi-Soweid et al. 2002; Nasser 1986). Arab female university students have been reported to exhibit high levels of body image dissatisfac- tion and preference for thinness (Zeeni et al. 2012; Yahia et al. 2011). Moreover, prevalence rates of ED were esti- mated to range between 16.2 and 42.7 % among female adolescents and young adults in the Middle-East (Eapen et al. 2006; Musaiger et al. 2013). However, research in the field of eating disorders remains limited in the Middle East and little is known about the possible role of religiosity and other socio-cultural factors in the etiology of ED. Eating disorders are often diagnosed in pediatric clinics or during health care visits. However, ED is underreported in the college setting. Hoyt and Ross (2003) found that few students actually present themselves specifically for the treatment of ED at college counseling centers and most have subclinical levels of ED symptomatology. These subclinical levels, often referred to as dysfunctional eating (DE), include some form of unhealthy weight regulation behaviors, such as skipping meals, avoiding fats/carbohy- drates, or fasting. The prevalence of young adults with DE was found to be higher than that of individuals suffering from full syndrome eating disorders. In addition, young adults with DE engage in the same disturbed eating be- haviors and often progress to full syndrome ED (Forney and Ward 2013). A vulnerability or a predisposing factor is a variable that is believed to cause a disorder to develop. Usually, vul- nerability factors lie dormant during the life of an & Rita Doumit rita.doumit@lau.edu.lb 1 Alice Ramez Chagoury School of Nursing, Lebanese American University, P.O. Box 36, Byblos, Lebanon 2 Department of Mathematics and Computer Sciences, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon 3 Department of Social Work, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus 4 School of Nursing, Lubbock Christian University, Lubbock, TX, USA 5 Department of Natural Sciences, Lebanese American University, Byblos, Lebanon 123 Community Ment Health J DOI 10.1007/s10597-015-9872-6