Relationships among loneliness, interpersonal dependency, and disordered eating in young adults

Abstract

This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. © 2009, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online at the Personality and Individual Differences, doi: 10.1016Differences, doi: 10. /j.paid.2008 This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. The final, definitive version of this document can be found online in Personality and Individual Differences (doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2008.10.027) SummaryPrevious studies on loneliness and interpersonal dependency suggest a shared relation with eating disorders. Previous findings of the relation of interpersonal dependency with eating disorders may have misestimated the importance of interpersonal dependency by not including loneliness. Measures of loneliness, interpersonal dependency, and disordered eating (drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, body dissatisfaction) were given to 176 college students. Mediation models were used to test the relative influence of interpersonal dependency and loneliness on body dissatisfaction. Loneliness mediated the relation between interpersonal dependency and body dissatisfaction; no other mediation models could be tested.

Behavioral Inhibition System and Behavioral Activation System (BIS/BAS) Motives and Loneliness as Predictors of Eating Disturbances in Female College Students: Interpersonal Context Matters

“…Specifically, loneliness was found to account for a small, but significant amount of unique variance in drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, and body dissatisfaction in female college students. Interestingly, although past researchers have often portrayed loneliness as a general risk factor for eating disturbances and disorders (e.g., Levine, 2012;Pritchard & Yalch, 2009), we found some evidence for specificity across the prediction models. That is, after controlling for BIS/BAS motives, loneliness was found to be two times more involved in predicting bulimic symptoms than predicting drive for thinness and body dissatisfaction in females.…”

“…We focused on three relatively distinct indices of eating disturbances, namely, drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, and body dissatisfaction, as these are believed to represent core attitudes and behaviors present in anorexia and bulimia (Garner, Olmstead, & Polivy, 1983), and because they have often been examined in studies involving female college students (e.g., Boisvert & Harrell, 2009;Pritchard & Yalch, 2009). By focusing on more than one eating disturbance outcome, we also hoped to evaluate the generalizability of our prediction findings across outcomes.…”

“…Given these patterns, it is not surprising that findings from a handful of published studies have pointed to a positive association between loneliness and eating dysfunction in females (e.g., Wright & Pritchard, 2009). For example, Pritchard and Yalch (2009) found that greater experience of loneliness was positively associated with greater body dissatisfaction in a large sample of female college students. Lastly, if loneliness can be shown to be an important predictor of eating disturbances in female college students, above and beyond what may be accounted for by BIS/BAS motives, then it may have important implications not only for theory (e.g., understanding the added contributions made by important psychosocial variables in the lives of females), but also for practice (e.g., developing programs that help female students nurture and/or sustain meaningful social connections with others).…”

Loneliness mediates the relationship between emotion dysregulation and bulimia nervosa/binge eating disorder psychopathology in a clinical sample

“…First, as loneliness has mediated interpersonal/emotional dependency and body dissatisfaction [11], it may mediate between emotion dysregulation and BN/BED psychopathology. Alternatively, emotion dysregulation may mediate between loneliness and BN/BED psychopathology.…”

Adaptive and maladaptive dependency in bereavement: Distinguishing prolonged and resolved grief trajectories

“…Clinical descriptions of dependency focus on a helpless self-schema, which causes individuals to exhibit needy, clingy behavior even in situations where autonomous functioning is warranted (Bornstein, 1992; Millon & Davis, 1996). For example, maladaptive dependency is linked with increased risk for depression (Blatt & Zuroff, 1992), eating disorders (Pritchard & Yalch, 2009), and anxiety disorders (Ng & Bornstein, 2005). However, clinicians and researchers increasingly agree that the dependency related motivation to obtain and maintain nurturing and supportive relationships is neither positive nor negative, but may enhance functioning in certain contexts while undermining it in others (Bornstein, 1992; Pincus & Wilson, 2001).…”