scholarly journals Direct and indirect effects of alexithymia on eating disorder symptoms in a non-clinical female sample: determining the role of negative affect

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Ridout ◽  
Deborah Wallis
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Disordered Eating ◽  
Clinical Sample ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Drive For Thinness ◽  
Targeted Interventions ◽  
Eating Disorder Symptoms ◽  
Disordered Eating Symptoms

Alexithymia, a multifaceted personality construct, characterised by difficulties identifying and describing one’s feelings, and by an externally focused cognitive style. Alexithymia is risk factor for negative affect and disordered eating. Previous work involving patients with anorexia nervosa revealed that high levels of alexithymia were directly linked to eating disorder symptoms and also indirectly linked via negative affect. Our aim was to establish if these findings generalised to subclinical disordered eating symptoms. A non-clinical sample of females (n=206) completed measures of depression, anxiety, alexithymia, and disordered eating. As expected, negative affect (combined depression and anxiety) mediated the effect of alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings) on disordered eating symptoms (drive for thinness, bulimia, and body dissatisfaction). However, also as expected, direct effects of these alexithymia facets on disordered eating were still evident after controlling for negative mood. Our findings confirm that the relationships observed in patients with clinically diagnosed eating disorders are also evident in those with subclinical disordered eating. Targeted interventions to reduce deficits in recognising and describing one’s feelings could potentially ameliorate disordered eating in ‘at risk’ participants.

The effect of body dissatisfaction on disordered eating: The mediating role of self-esteem and negative affect in male and female adolescents

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1098-1108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soledad Cruz-Sáez ◽  
Aitziber Pascual ◽  
Anna Wlodarczyk ◽  
Enrique Echeburúa
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
Body Dissatisfaction ◽  
Disordered Eating ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Drive For Thinness ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
The Relationship

This study aimed to determine whether self-esteem and negative affect sequentially mediate the relationship between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. A total of 806 adolescents (61.8% females) completed the Drive for Thinness, Bulimia, and Body Dissatisfaction subscales of the Eating Disorder Inventory-2, the Anxiety and Depression subscales of the General Health Questionnaire-28, and the Negative Self-beliefs subscale of the Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire. Mediational analyses showed that body dissatisfaction had both direct and indirect effects through self-esteem and negative affect on disordered eating. It was also observed that negative self-esteem mediated—completely in boys and partially in girls—the relationship between body dissatisfaction and negative affect.

Eating Disturbances in Competitive Lightweight and Heavyweight Rowers

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-646
Author(s):  
Uta Kraus ◽  
Sophie Clara Holtmann ◽  
Tanja Legenbauer
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Disordered Eating ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Eating Behaviour ◽  
Eating Disturbances ◽  
Drive For Thinness ◽  
Eating Disorder Symptoms ◽  
Health Related

Disordered eating in athletes has been frequently studied with a particular emphasis on aesthetic sports. Lately, competitive rowing has come into the focus. It has been supposed that in competitive rowers eating disturbances occur more frequently compared to non-competitive rowers. The aim of the present study therefore is to investigate eating disturbances and mental health related issues in competitive and non-competitive rowers. N = 45 lightweight (LWR), n = 31 heavyweight (HWR) and n = 37 non-competitive rowers (NCR) participated in an online based survey during the beginning of the on-season asking for eating behaviour (SCOFF, EDI-2) and mental health problems (PHQ). Results showed that competitive rowers reported more eating disturbances and risky attitudes/behaviour compared to non-competitive rowers. LWR showed higher Drive for thinness compared to HWR. The regression analysis revealed that Drive for thinness and Bulimia predict eating disorder symptoms in rowers. These results emphasize the presence of serious eating disturbances in competitive rowing.

Suicidal Ideation and Eating Disorder Symptoms in Adolescents: The Role of Interoceptive Deficits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie M. Perkins ◽  
Shelby N. Ortiz ◽  
April R. Smith ◽  
Amy M. Brausch
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Suicidal Ideation ◽  
Eating Disorder Symptoms

Relationships Among Childhood Maltreatment, Limbic System Dysfunction, and Eating Disorders in College Women

2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052091259
Author(s):  
Andrea E. Mercurio ◽  
Fang Hong ◽  
Carolyn Amir ◽  
Amanda R. Tarullo ◽  
Anna Samkavitz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
College Women ◽  
Limbic System ◽  
Indirect Effect ◽  
Childhood Maltreatment ◽  
Eating Pathology ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Eating Disorder Symptoms

The mechanisms linking childhood maltreatment and eating pathology are not fully understood. We examined the mediating role of limbic system dysfunction in the relationships between three forms of childhood maltreatment (parental psychological maltreatment, parental physical maltreatment, and parental emotional neglect) and eating disorder symptoms. A convenience sample of college women ( N = 246, M age = 19.62, SD = 2.41) completed measures of maltreatment (Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales and the Parental Bonding Instrument), limbic system dysfunction (Limbic System Questionnaire), and eating pathology (Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire). We hypothesized that there would be an indirect effect of each type of childhood maltreatment on eating disorder symptoms via limbic system irritability. Results generally supported the hypotheses. Examination of the individual paths that defined the indirect effect indicated that higher reported childhood maltreatment was associated with greater limbic irritability symptoms, and higher limbic irritability symptomatology was related to higher total eating disorder scores. There were no significant direct effects for any of the proposed models. Findings are in line with research supporting the role of limbic system dysfunction as a possible pathway in the maltreatment-eating disorder link. Given that limbic system dysfunction may underlie behavioral symptoms of eating disorders, efforts targeting limbic system dysfunction associated with child maltreatment might best be undertaken at an early developmental stage, although interventions for college women struggling with eating disorders are also crucial.

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