Enhancing Understanding of Eating Psychopathology: A Network Analysis Study

Abstract

Compassion Focused Therapy for eating disorders (CFT-E) has been shown to be effective in treating eating psychopathology. Exploring which processes identified by the CFT-E model are most linked with eating disorder symptoms could help develop targeted treatments. However, the relationship between these variables requires further investigation. This study explores the interconnections between eating disorder symptoms and processes identified by the CFT-E using a network analysis approach. Participants were 497 individuals (77.3% female) from a community sample who completed measures to assess body dissatisfaction, shape and weight overvaluation, cognitive restraint, bingeing, emotional eating, purging, self-compassion, social comparison through appearance, self-criticism, appearance-related shame, guilt and pride, and positive and negative affect. A regularized partial correlation network was estimated. Appearance-related shame, inadequate self and body dissatisfaction emerged as the central nodes in the network. These findings support the use of interventions targeting shame and self-criticism for the treatment of eating disorder symptoms. Studies with diverse samples are needed to further examine the interconnections between eating psychopathology and the key processes identified by the CFT-E theoretical model.