Objective The purpose of this study was to examine the medical and psychological characteristics of children under the age of 13 years with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) and anorexia nervosa (AN) from a Canadian tertiary care pediatric eating disorders program. Method Participants included 106 children assessed between 2013 and 2017 using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM‐5). Data were collected through clinical interviews, psychometric questionnaires, and chart review. Information collected included medical variables (e.g., weight, heart rate, need for inpatient admission, and duration of illness from symptom onset); medical comorbidities (e.g., history of food allergies, infection, and abdominal pain preceding the eating disorder); and psychological variables (e.g., psychiatric comorbidity, self‐reported depression and anxiety, and eating disorder related behaviors and cognitions). Results Children with ARFID had a longer length of illness, while those with AN had lower heart rates and were more likely to be admitted as inpatients. Children with ARFID had a history of abdominal pain and infections preceding their diagnoses and were more likely to be diagnosed with a comorbid anxiety disorder. Children with AN had a higher drive for thinness, lower self‐esteem, and scored higher on depression. Discussion This is the first study to look at DSM‐5 diagnosis at assessment and include psychometric and interview data with younger children with AN and ARFID. Understanding the medical and psychological profiles of children with AN and ARFID can result in a more timely and accurate diagnosis of eating disorders in younger children.

Relationships among adult friendship attachment styles and levels of hope, self-disclosure, relationship satisfaction, and trust were studied to assess their validity as explanatory factors in friendship attachments in a cross-section of 268 undergraduate students at a small, private university. Significant relationships were found between attachment styles and hope, self-disclosure, and relationship satisfaction. Specifically, securely attached individuals showed significantly more hope, self-disclosure, and relationship satisfaction than individuals with fearful attachment styles. In addition, individuals with fearful attachment styles showed significantly less hope, self-disclosure, and relationship satisfaction than individuals with secure, dismissing, or preoccupied attachment styles.

Drawing on existing research regarding adult attachment, attachment to God, and Trinitarian theology, the current study investigated the level of attachment security to God (comparing secure, preoccupied, dismissing, and fearful types) and the connection with hope and religious behaviors. Significant, positive relationships were hypothesized among the variables of secure attachment to God, high levels of hope, and high participation in religious behaviors in Christian college students. A cross-section of 268 undergraduate students at a Christian university completed the Attachment to God Inventory (Beck & Mc-Donald, 2004), the Herth Hope Index (Herth, 1992), Relationships Structures Questionnaire (Fraley et al., 2006) and demographic questions regarding their religious behaviors. Results were analyzed utilizing correlation, polynomial logistic regression, multiple regression, and path analyses. Results indicated that the levels of hope and religious behaviors predicted 36.6% of the variance in attachment to God-avoidance. Findings regarding personal versus corporate religious behaviors are discussed. Conclusions and implications regarding attachment to God and Trinitarian theology are discussed. The study of adult attachment has expanded in recent years with the study of romantic and friendship attachments (Hazan & Shaver, 1987; Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991) and attachment to God (Kirkpatrick, 1997; Beck & McDonald, 2004; Miner, 2007). God has been purported to be the ultimate attachment figure for corrective attachment, as direct feedback from God, unlike most attachment figures, cannot interfere with or contaminate the bond (Kirkpatrick, 1998). A strong need for empirical study incorporating theological and psychological perspectives with attachment to God exists, as this has been studied primarily from a psychological perspective. Miner's (2007) attempt to theoretically apply Gunton's (1985) Trinitarian Theology to attachment to God was a step in the right direction, but was not empirical. The current study attempted to bridge this gap through empirical study with a survey-based methodology of attachment to God, hope, and religious behaviors. Conflicting findings exist regarding the degree of similarity between attachment to God and human attachments (Kirkpatrick, 1997; Beck & McDonald, 2004). As such, this study explored factors that could clarify contributions of correspondence and compensation. Attachment Theory & Behaviors As identified in Bowlby's (1969) seminal attachment work, attachment bonds involve a desire to maintain proximity or contact, distress at involuntary separation, and security and comfort-seeking behaviors (Cassidy & Shaver, 1999). Primary attachment behaviors include using the caregiver as a secure base, maintaining proximity, and using the caregiver as a safe haven. When proximity is not achieved, individuals experience separation anxiety and emotional responses due to the impending loss of the attachment figure, varying according to the individual's attachment style (

No abstract

No abstract