Coping style and vulnerability to eating disorders in adolescent boys

Abstract

The main goal of this study was to analyse the relationship between coping styles and the predisposition to eating disorders in a sample of adolescent boys. The sample comprised 171 males (mean age 15.74 years) and the questionnaires used were the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2) and the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS). The results indicated that self-blame, a scale of the dimension intropunitive avoidance, characterized by self-blaming excessively in the face of problems, was the strategy most closely linked to the predisposition to eating disorders. This scale accounted for 18 per cent of the variance of the total score of the EDI-2, 11 per cent of the drive for thinness and 10 per cent of the body dissatisfaction. Several hypotheses are presented in an attempt to account for the differences between the results of this study and those obtained by studies carried out with adolescent girls. Finally, the need for prevention programmes for adolescents, in particular in groups at risk, is emphasized.

Associations Between Multiple Types of Stress and Disordered Eating Among Girls and Boys in Middle School

“…Additionally, relationship, education, and financial stress were associated with boys' dieting. It is unclear why we found these particular associations, although studies suggest that boys who feel overwhelmed by problems may react by engaging in disordered eating behaviors such as dieting (Garcia-Grau et al 2004). Unlike the results seen with girls, boys' bulimic symptoms were indeed directly associated with stress, specifically education and family stress.…”

Associations of neuroticism-impulsivity and coping with binge eating in a nationally representative sample of adolescents in the United States

“…For instance, distraction coping, which aims to divert attention by engaging in secondary behavioral or cognitive activities (Skinner et al, 2003), was associated with both same day and next day binge eating (Freeman & Gil, 2004). Avoidance coping (e.g., escape, disengagement, wishful thinking) (Skinner et al, 2003) has been proposed as a predictor of eating disorders (Aldao, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Schweizer, 2010) and has been reported in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) in the U.S. and other countries (Bloks, Spinhoven, Callewaert, Willemse-Koning, & Turksma, 2001; Bloks, Van Furth, Callewaert, & Hoek, 2004; Brytek-Matera & Schiltz, 2013; Fitzsimmons & Bardone-Cone, 2010; Lobera, Estébanez, Fernández, Bautista, & Garrido, 2009; Nagata, Matsuyama, Kiriike, Iketani, & Oshima, 2000; Troop, Holbrey, & Treasure, 1998; Troop, Holbrey, Trowler, & Treasure, 1994), female college students in the U.S. (Dennard & Richards, 2013; Kelly, Lydecker, & Mazzeo, 2012; Wonderlich-Tierney & Vander Wal, 2010; Wolff, Crosby, Roberts, & Wittrock, 2000), and community samples of adolescents in Spain (García-Grau, Fusté, Miró, Saldaña, & Bados, 2002, 2004). …”

Emotion regulation and binge eating in children

“…25 In adolescents, emotion-focused coping was found to be associated with disturbed eating attitudes 26 and to be predictive of a predisposition for developing an eating disorder. 27,28 In addition, data from different areas of research, e.g., ecological momentary assessment on adults with BED, bulimia nervosa, 2 and binge eating, 29,30 experimental studies on adults with BED, 31,32 and intervention studies on patients with BED [33][34][35] suggest that binge eating is associated with problematic emotion regulation. Early studies showed that eating psychopathology was associated with an increased use of maladaptive coping and a decreased use of adaptive coping in a nonclinical population 36 and in adults with eating disorders.…”