Participants included 344 young adult women (Age: 18-30, M = 19.04, SD = 1.44). Participants were recruited from a volunteer research pool at a large Midwestern university in the U.S.A. Participants received course credit for their participation. Research was approved by the institutional review board and carried out in accordance with the declaration of Helsinki. Only females were included in the current study, as binge eating is more common in women than men (APA, 2000). Also, only Caucasian females were included as preliminary analyses revealed differences in allele frequencies of the 5-HTTLPR genotype according to ethnicity (χ2 = 24.78, p < .02). Participants initially came to the laboratory in group sessions to provide informed consent and saliva samples for genotyping. Within 72 hours of the lab session, participants completed all other measures on-line.
