Abstract
The purpose of this study is to provide a review of the literature on the relationship between eating disorders and social skills in adolescents. A search was made on the Medline, SciELO and Lilacs databases, for items combining the terms 'eating disorders', 'anorexia nervosa', 'bulimia nervosa' and 'food behavior', with the terms 'social psychology' and 'social isolation', and with the keywords 'social competence', 'social skill' and 'interpersonal relations'. The following were included: studies on adolescents; in Portuguese, English and Spanish; published in the years 2007 through 2012. The search resulted in 63 articles, and 50 were included in this review. The majority of the studies were made in Brazil and the United States. Of the total, 43 were original articles. The studies aimed to understand how emotional state could influence the establishment of eating disorders, interpersonal relationships and peer relationship. The articles also discussed the influence of the media and of society in this process. Based on the analysis of the studies, it was observed that the greater an adolescent's repertory of social skills, the greater his or her factor of protection against the development of eating disorders.
Highlights
Feeding or eating disorders are behavioral syndromes of which the diagnostic criteria have been widely studied in the last 30 years
According to Lofrano-Prado et al.[5], the prevalence of anorexia and bulimia nervosa in adolescents is between 1% and 4%, but it is estimated that 20% to 56% of girls and 31% to 39% of boys develop these disorders[6]
This being so, and due to the scarcity of research studies that relate to the influence of social skills on the occurrence and maintenance of eating disorders in adolescents, the aim of this study is to provide a review of the literature on both subjects, so as to establish the relationship between them in this population
Summary
Feeding or eating disorders are behavioral syndromes of which the diagnostic criteria have been widely studied in the last 30 years. According to Caballo[19]: Socially skillful behavior is a group of behaviors practiced by an individual in an interpersonal context that expresses the feelings, attitudes, desires, opinions or rights of that individual in a manner that is appropriate to the situation, while respecting the same types of behavior in others, and which usually resolves the immediate problems of the situation while minimizing the probability of future problems This being so, and due to the scarcity of research studies that relate to the influence of social skills on the occurrence and maintenance of eating disorders in adolescents, the aim of this study is to provide a review of the literature on both subjects, so as to establish the relationship between them in this population
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