Boscoe, A;
Stanbury, R;
Harrison, A;
(2021)
Social-emotional functioning in young people with symptoms of eating disorders: A gender inclusive analogue study.
Brain and Behavior
, Article e02017. 10.1002/brb3.2017.
(In press).
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Contemporary models of eating disorders (EDs) suggest that EDs are maintained by social-emotional difficulties. However, supporting evidence is derived largely from female, clinic-based samples. This study, which refrained from gender specific inclusion criteria, aimed to improve understanding of social-emotional functioning in a large community-based analogue sample of young adults aged 16-26. METHODS: Five hundred and forty-four participants (85.1% female; mean age 21, SD = 4.3) completed the Eating Attitudes Test, Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation, Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, Social Phobia Inventory, Revised Social Anhedonia Scale, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-four participants scored over the EAT-26 clinical cutoff, and a two-way multivariate analysis of covariance found a medium-sized, statistically significant main effect of group on social-emotional functioning (F(5, 530) = 6.204, p ≤ .001, Wilks' Λ = 0.945, d = 0.48.), suggesting that individuals with significant ED symptoms found it more challenging to notice, label, and regulate emotions in themselves and recognize emotions in others. Gender did not significantly impact social-emotional functioning (F(10, 1,060) = 0.556, p = .850, Wilks' Λ = 0.990), and there was no significant group by gender interaction (F(10, 1,060) = 0.688, p = .737, Wilks' Λ = 0.987). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that the social-emotional difficulties, particularly with emotion recognition and regulation, present in clinical samples are also evident in young people of all genders with significant disordered eating. Future work could aim to recruit an even more gender-diverse community sample to further elucidate social-emotional functioning in individuals in the community with significant disordered eating.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Social-emotional functioning in young people with symptoms of eating disorders: A gender inclusive analogue study. |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/brb3.2017 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.2017 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorders, emotion recognition, emotion regulation, emotional functioning, nonclinical, social functioning, young people |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10119353 |
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