Transtornos Mentais e Tratamento

Eating Disorders: Risk in Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

Abstract

Mohammad Shadab

The goal of the current study was to compare adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) to a healthy control group in order to determine the relationship between the risk of eating disorders (ED), psychological adjustment, empathy, attachment style, and internalisation of the thin-ideal. 35 female adolescents with AN and 35 HC adolescents were given the Questionnaire of General Data, the Eating Disorders Inventory-3 (EDI-3), the Questionnaire of Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance-3 (SATAQ-3), the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R), and the Basic Empathy Scale (BES). Female ANs with greater degrees of general psychological maladjustment (GPMC) and female HCs with higher thin-ideal internalisation were shown to have the highest risk of eating disorders. In the AN group, GPMC alone or in conjunction with attachment style and thin-ideal internalisation were not shown to be meaningful predictors of the probability of developing an eating disorder. The findings of the study lend credence to theories about EDs that stress the contribution of general psychological maladjustment to ED development.