Abstract

BackgroundAdolescence represents one of the critical transitions in the life span and is characterized by a tremendous pace in growth and change that is second only to that of infancy. Both biological and psychological changes occurring during early adolescence may also influence the definition of subsequent late adolescence or early adulthood physiological or (psycho)-pathological features, including bulimia nervosa (BN) whenever occurring. Therefore, a pre-emptive assessment of suggestive psychological traits, including bulimic ones, during early and late years of adolescence, is recommended and represents the goal of the present study.MethodsSix hundred and eight healthy volunteers attending mid- or high school, aged 14–19 years, were consecutively enrolled at multiple sites in Eastern Sicily, Italy. A systematic psychological assessment was performed, including McCrae and Costa' BigFive, the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), Bisantis's Assertivity test and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents. Demographic and general characteristics, including the body mass index, were also recorded. Based on hierarchical considerations, cases were then divided into ‘younger’ (‘early’ years, 14–16) and ‘older’ (‘late’ years, 17–19) adolescents.ResultsUpon descriptive and Pearson's correlation analyses, the following EDI constructs ‘drive to thinness’ and ‘bulimia’ scored significantly higher (both p = <.001) in ‘early’ vs. ‘late’ cases. Conversely, BigFive ‘conscientiousness’ was higher in older subjects vs. early cases (p = <.003). As expected, ‘drive to thinness’ positively correlated with BN both in early (r = .31) and late (r = .50) cases. In the ‘late’ group, age correlated with conscientiousness (r = .206) while BN correlated with drive to thinness (r = .505); finally, a negative correlation was observed with regard to consciousness and BN (r = −.19).ConclusionsDespite intrinsic methodological limits, our preliminary findings confirm that the transition between early and late years of adolescence is a critical phase of life span, with the consolidation of ‘conscientiousness’ eventually playing a protective role towards the onset of bulimic traits. If confirmed by replication studies, ideally providing long-term follow-ups too, an early acknowledgement of bulimic traits may play a major predictive role for subsequent BN, ultimately contributing to more effective pre-emptive interventions as well.

Highlights

  • Adolescence represents one of the critical transitions in the life span and is characterized by a tremendous pace in growth and change that is second only to that of infancy

  • For some of these disorders, including bulimia nervosa (BN), the typical age of onset may fall within the early years of adolescence (≤15 years) and late adolescence (17–21 years) [4,5]

  • Bulimic traits are difficult to detect due to the secrecy of the phenomena and social stigma still associated to BN and its related conducts, leading most of the ‘affected healthy’ adolescents to neglect the burden of their own bulimic conducts [10,11,12]

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Summary

Introduction

Adolescence represents one of the critical transitions in the life span and is characterized by a tremendous pace in growth and change that is second only to that of infancy Both biological and psychological changes occurring during early adolescence may influence the definition of subsequent late adolescence or early adulthood physiological or (psycho)-pathological features, including bulimia nervosa (BN) whenever occurring. The World Health Organization identifies adolescence as the period in human growth and development that occurs after childhood and before adulthood, from ages 10 to 19 It represents one of the critical transitions in the life span and is characterized by a tremendous pace in growth and change that is second only to that of infancy. Bulimic traits are difficult to detect due to the secrecy of the phenomena and social stigma still associated to BN and its related conducts, leading most of the ‘affected healthy’ adolescents to neglect the burden of their own bulimic conducts [10,11,12]

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