Abstract
BackgroundPerceived stress, immature defense style, depression and anxiety and negative life events all are known to be associated with eating disorders. The present study aimed to investigate the relationships between these factors and their relative strength of association with eating disorder symptoms over time.MethodsThis research was embedded in a longitudinal study of adult women with varying levels of eating disorder symptoms and who were initially recruited from tertiary educational institutions in two Australian states. Four years from initial recruitment, 371 participants completed the Eating Disorder Examination- Questionnaire (EDE-Q) for eating disorder symptoms.Kessler-10 Psychological Distress Scale (K-10) as a measure of depression and anxiety, a Life Events Checklist as a measure of previous exposure to potentially traumatic events, the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) to determine perceived stress. One year later, in year 5, 295 (878.7%) completed follow-up assessments including the EDE-Q. The questionnaires were completed online or returned via reply paid post.ResultsAll four independent factors were found to correlate significantly with the global EDE-Q score in cross-sectional analyses (all Spearman rho (rs) >0.18, p < 0.01) and at one year follow-up (all rs > 0.15, all p < 0.05). In multivariate linear regression modeling adjusted for age and year 4 global EDE-Q scores, perceived stress and psychological distress scores were significantly associated with year 5 global EDE-Q scores (p = 0.046 and <0.001 respectively).ConclusionsPsychological distress, and to a lesser degree perceived stress had the strongest association with eating disorder symptoms over time The findings support further investigation of interventions to reduce distress and perceived stress in adult females with disordered eating.
Highlights
Perceived stress, immature defense style, depression and anxiety and negative life events all are known to be associated with eating disorders
Three main eating disorders are defined in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association 2013): anorexia nervosa (AN) which is defined as a refusal to maintain body weight at or above minimum normal weight for age and height, bulimia nervosa (BN) which is delineated as recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by regular
Psychological and social features such as mood intolerance or “an inability to cope appropriately with certain emotional states” are known to contribute to the onset and/or maintenance of eating disorder symptoms (Fairburn et al 2003). This present paper explores the relationships between four such psychosocial factors, namely psychological distress from affective symptoms, defense style, perceived stress and life events, and eating disorder symptoms
Summary
Immature defense style, depression and anxiety and negative life events all are known to be associated with eating disorders. Three main eating disorders are defined in the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association 2013): anorexia nervosa (AN) which is defined as a refusal to maintain body weight at or above minimum normal weight for age and height, bulimia nervosa (BN) which is delineated as recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by regular present paper explores the relationships between four such psychosocial factors, namely psychological distress from affective symptoms, defense style, perceived stress and life events, and eating disorder symptoms. In this background we present research reporting the association between these four features and eating disorder symptoms. We have found that a general measure of affective symptoms or psychological distress was more strongly associated with weight stability than eating disorder symptoms in a longitudinal study of women with disordered eating (Darby et al 2009)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
