Introduction: Adolescents may feel dissatisfied with their bodies, which may lead to a risk of eating disorders (EDs) due to several factors, with emotional distress being one of the most important. Evidence suggests that family might be one of the most significant factors that may increase or decrease emotional distress. An important family pattern found to contribute to mental and physical health is the differentiation of self (DoS). The primary purpose of the current study was to map the complex relationships between DoS, emotional distress, and EDs among adolescents. We hypothesized that emotional distress would mediate the relationship between DoS and the risk of EDs among adolescents. Moreover, based on findings indicating a higher risk of EDs among females, we expected sex differences in the research indices and the mediation model.

Methods: The sample included 194 non-clinical adolescents (mean age 15.15; mean BMI 21.66). Preliminary analyses examined differences between males and females using -tests. In addition, Pearson correlations were run to assess the association between background variables and the study metrics among males and females. To examine the mediation effect, we ran SEM.

Results: Due to a sex moderation effect, two mediation models were run (SEM), one for females and one for males. Results indicated that emotional distress partially mediated the relationships between DoS and the risk of EDs. In addition, sex differences were found in the mediated indices, showing that among female adolescents, perfectionism is the only dimension of EDs that was associated with DoS through the mediation of emotional distress. While the relationship between emotional distress and the risk of EDs is well documented.

Conclusions: It is concluded that high DoS may reduce emotional distress, which may, in turn, decrease the risk of EDs. In addition, the results enable an in-depth understanding of specific risk factors of EDs that characterize each sex.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9874111PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1015405DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

emotional distress
36
risk eds
20
eating disorders
12
emotional
9
distress
9
eds
9
risk eating
8
distress relationship
8
relationships dos
8
eds adolescents
8

Similar Publications

Increased intolerance of uncertainty (IU), or distress felt when encountering situations with unknown outcomes, occurs transdiagnostically across various forms of psychopathology and is targeted in therapeutic intervention. Increased intolerance of uncertainty shows overlap with symptoms of internalizing disorders, such as depression and anxiety, including negative affect and anxious apprehension (worry). While neuroanatomical correlates of IU have been reported, previous investigations have not disentangled the specific neural substrates of IU above and beyond any overlapping relationships with aspects of internalizing psychopathology.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cognitive training is a promising intervention for psychological distress; however, its effectiveness has yielded inconsistent outcomes across studies. This research is a pre-registered individual-level meta-analysis to identify factors contributing to cognitive training efficacy for anxiety and depression symptoms. Machine learning methods, alongside traditional statistical approaches, were employed to analyze 22 datasets with 1544 participants who underwent working memory training, attention bias modification, interpretation bias modification, or inhibitory control training.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Childbirth is often characterised as a time of joy. However, some women have a traumatic birth experience, resulting in ongoing psychological symptoms of distress. This can affect women's mental and physical health in subsequent pregnancies; however, a woman-centred approach has the potential to heal.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Salivary cortisol measures across the clinical stages of psychosis: An individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis.

Psychoneuroendocrinology

January 2025

King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, Department of Psychosis Studies, London, UK; National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London, London, UK; Division of Insurance Medicine, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address:

Background: Studies of salivary cortisol levels in psychosis have yielded inconsistent findings, which may be attributable to heterogeneity in cortisol measurement, illness stage, and approaches to dealing with sampling factors and potential confounders. To address these issues, we performed an individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis comparing individuals at different stages of psychosis to controls using five different salivary cortisol measures and explored potential effect modifiers.

Methods: Salivary cortisol data from five London-based cohorts were used to derive the cortisol awakening response, total daytime cortisol output, basal cortisol, and diurnal slope measures (wake-to-evening and peak-to-evening).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: With the increasing implementation of patient online record access (ORA), various approaches to access to minors' electronic health records have been adopted globally. In Sweden, the current regulatory framework restricts ORA for minors and their guardians when the minor is aged between 13 and 15 years. Families of adolescents with complex health care needs often desire health information to manage their child's care and involve them in their care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!