Depression and social anxiety mediate the relationship between parenting styles and risk of eating disorders: A study among Arab adolescents

Abstract

I n multicultural Israel, the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs), a common chronic disorder among Western adolescents (especially females), has risen for Arab adolescents, who belong to an Eastern collectivist society. The study examines family and psychological factors that may increase the risk of EDs among Muslim Arab adolescents. We expected social anxiety and depressive symptoms to mediate the association between parenting styles and risk of EDs, with possible gender differences in the mediation model. Participants were 613 Muslim adolescents (394 females and 219 males); mean age = 15.4 ± 1.6; range = 12-19. The analyses revealed that the severity of depressive symptoms and especially social anxiety mediate the relationship between authoritarian parenting style and risk of EDs. Females reported higher levels of risk of EDs, social anxiety, depression and authoritative parenting style than males; no differences appeared for authoritarian or permissive parenting styles. The research sheds new light on risk factors for EDs and the likelihood of authoritarian parenting style and social anxiety being involved in the aetiology of EDs among Arab adolescents. The outcomes meaningfully add to understanding of specific psychological processes that may be associated with the risk of EDs in this population.

The Role of Problematic Smartphone Uses and Psychological Distress in the Relationship Between Sleep Quality and Disordered Eating Behaviors Among Chinese College Students

“…Nonetheless, self-reported questionnaires were proven to be valid and applied worldwide. Third, although a number of potential confounders were included, there are some unmeasured confounders (e.g., parenting styles, substance use and other variables) that may contribute to these associations ( 63 , 64 ). Forth, the current study only includes college students who are currently on campus and did not account for those absent.…”

Parenting styles, maladaptive coping styles, and disturbed eating attitudes and behaviors: a multiple mediation analysis in patients with feeding and eating disorders

“…In this regard, a systematic review of recent research has demonstrated that parenting styles ( e.g ., authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles) have been weakly to moderately associated with individual domains of child feeding, wherein permissive parenting style was negatively associated with monitoring for both fathers and mothers (as the most consistent relationship) ( Collins, Duncanson & Burrows, 2014 ). According to these phenomenological descriptions, the FED model suggests that disturbed EAB can be considered one of the most important manifestations of unhealthy parenting and maladaptive coping styles—a hypothesis supported by recent evidence in several studies ( Waller, Kennerley & Ohanian, 2007 ; Haycraft & Blissett, 2010 ; Enten & Golan, 2009 ; Zubatsky, Berge & Neumark-Sztainer, 2015 ; Peleg, Tzischinsky & Spivak-Lavi, 2021 ; Collins, Duncanson & Burrows, 2014 ). In detail, for detached protector/self-soother modes, compensatory and restrictive eating behaviors can act as a form of primary or secondary emotional avoidance while producing soothing feelings of numbness, or euphoria in some cases ( Brown et al, 2016 ).…”

The Relationship between Type 2 Diabetes, Differentiation of Self, and Emotional Distress: Jews and Arabs in Israel

“…Women reported higher levels of emotional reactivity + fusion with others than men, as was found in previous studies [ 47 ]. This may be due to overly high expectations that they function as spouses, mothers and career wives [ 20 ]. Furthermore, due to higher levels of oxytocin, estrogen and progesterone, women tend to be more sensitive and emotional than men [ 48 ].…”

“…Therefore, we hypothesized that Arabs would report lower levels of emotional cutoff (DoS) and higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms (emotional distress) than Jews (Hypothesis 2). Based on documented gender-related findings on DoS and emotional distress [20], we also predicted (Hypothesis 3) that women would report higher levels of emotional reactivity and fusion with others (DoS), as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms (emotional distress), than men. Finally (Hypothesis 4), we assumed that DoS would be associated with emotional distress, high levels of emotional reactivity, emotional cutoff and fusion with others and a low level of I-position would be associated with high levels of stress and depressive symptoms.…”

“…DoS has been found to be positively related to psychological wellbeing [ 15 ], satisfaction and quality of life [ 14 ] and negatively related to depression [ 16 ], emotional distress [ 17 ] and anxiety [ 14 , 15 ]. A few studies have found adverse associations with a number of behaviors and somatic symptoms, such as fibromyalgia [ 18 ], alcoholism [ 19 ], eating disorders [ 20 ]) and T2DM [ 5 ]. These results were observed in both individualist societies and in collectivist societies, such as Arabs living in Israel as a minority [ 21 ].…”