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Defense styles and object‐relations disturbances among university women displaying varying degrees of “symptomatic” eating
Author(s) -
Steiger Howard,
Houle Lucie
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(199103)10:2<145::aid-eat2260100203>3.0.co;2-d
Subject(s) - psychology , object relations theory , eating disorders , interpersonal communication , psychodynamics , population , subclinical infection , clinical psychology , interpersonal relationship , developmental psychology , eating attitudes test , psychotherapist , social psychology , medicine , psychoanalytic theory , environmental health
Psychodynamic theory links eating disorders to developmentally determined deficits in interpersonal functioning and self‐regulation, and argues that eating symptoms serve needs for tension regulation and control, and express conflicts that are principally interpersonal in nature. To test such a view, we used the EAT‐26 and a brief questionnaire tapping eating symptoms to establish the presence and severity of eating symptoms among 112 university women, and then compared scores of groups exhibiting different symptom severities on the Bell Object‐Relations Inventory and the Defense Style Questionnaire. Results indicated that “symptomatic eaters” showed more object‐relations problems and were more reliant on maladaptive defenses. Findings of this type in a population showing largely subclinical eating disturbances suggest that deficits in interpersonal and adaptive functioning are likely precursors to, rather than consequences of, eating‐disorder development.