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Objective: This study investigated whether attachment history predicts unique variance in body mass index in young women., Method: A cross-sectional design was employed. One hundred and forty five women completed self report measures of attachment history and psychological symptoms., Results: The findings indicated that negative parental discipline predicted significant variance in body mass index when common variance associated with demographic and psychological symptom measures was taken into account., Conclusions: It is concluded that attachment history may contribute to overweight and obesity and may be an important factor to consider in the prevention and treatment of overweight in women., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Emotional processing was investigated in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and in healthy volunteers (HVs) using self report questionnaires and information processing tasks. Compared to the HVs, patients with AN had lower levels of self reported emotional awareness and expression. They also responded more slowly to, correctly identified fewer emotions and misclassified more emotions in a facial recognition task, and responded more slowly to, and recalled fewer, self-referent emotion words. There were no key differences between the two groups on non-emotional control tasks, suggesting that their deficits are specific to emotional information and not a general feature of the illness. Analysis indicated that some, but not all, of the differences found remained when depressive symptoms were taken into account. Exploratory analysis of sub-groups (medicated vs. unmedicated patients) indicated that those who were on medication may perform very differently from those who were not on medication, including when level of depression is controlled, although it is important to emphasise that these findings are preliminary. The implications of a deficit in emotional processing in those with AN, including discussion of the specific differences found between medicated and unmedicated, are discussed in relation to previous findings in the area. A number of implications for future research, theory and therapy with those with AN are discussed.

Objective: The applicability of the cognitive model of eating disorders, particularly the role of deeper level beliefs, has not yet been investigated in men. The current study investigated the relationship between negative self-beliefs, underlying assumptions about weight, shape and eating, eating attitudes and depressive symptoms in a student sample of young men., Method: Fifty-six young male students completed self-report questionnaires, including measures of deeper level beliefs previously found to be typical of women with eating disorders and women with disturbed eating attitudes., Results: Eating attitudes in the student sample of young men were best predicted by one underlying assumption, i.e. control over eating. Depressive symptoms were best predicted by negative self-beliefs., Conclusion: Negative self-beliefs and underlying assumptions about weight, shape and eating relate to eating attitudes and depressive symptoms in a student sample of young men as would be predicted by cognitive theory. Cognitive models of eating disorders, particularly those incorporating deeper level beliefs may, therefore, be applicable to young men.

The current study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire in older adolescent females. Three hundred and sixty-seven girls aged 17 or 18 who were in secondary school education completed the Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Eating Attitudes Test. They also provided information on height and weight. The Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire had an almost identical factor structure to that previously found in adult women, although the factors were not quite as discrete as those in the original validation study. Internal consistency for each factor was high and construct validity (including convergent and criterion related validity) was very good. The almost identical factor structure, and other good psychometric properties, found for the Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire in the current study suggests that it is an appropriate measure for use in clinical settings and in research studies involving 17-18 year old girls. This includes older adolescents with eating disorders. The possibility that adolescents show a developmental tendency for less separation between the constructs assessed, when compared with adults, is of particular interest, and requires further exploration.

The specific content of core beliefs and schema in adolescent girls high and low in eating disorder symptoms was investigated using the Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire (EDBQ)-negative self-beliefs sub-scale and Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ). Girls with high Eating Attitude Test (EAT) scores had higher scores on both measures (using total and sub-scale scores) than girls with low EAT scores. However, all scores were related to eating disorder as well as depressive symptoms. Analysis of individual items on the EDBQ and YSQ found that scores on all EDBQ, but not all YSQ items, differed between the two groups, with higher scores in the high EAT group. However, a number of individual items (on both measures) in the high EAT group, as well as in the low EAT group, were related specifically to eating disorder symptoms and not also to depressive symptoms.

This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of early maladaptive schemas in the relationship between parental bonding and eating disorder symptoms in a group of female adolescents. Three hundred and sixty-seven female adolescents completed the Parental Bonding instrument [PBI; Brit. J. Med. Psychol. 52 (1979) 1-10], the Young Schema Questionnaire short version [YSQ; Young, J. E. (1998). The Young Schema Questionnaire: Short form. Available at ], and the Eating Attitudes Test [EAT; Psychol. Med. 9 (1979) 273-279]. Two underlying schemas, defectiveness/shame and dependence/incompetence, were perfect mediators in the relationship between parental bonding and eating disorder symptoms. Schemas relating to both shame and dependency may be important in determining the effect that parental bonding has on eating disorder symptoms in a sample of female adolescent schoolgirls.