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Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviour Problems in Childhood Contribute to the Development of Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa—A Study Comparing Sister Pairs
Author(s) -
Adambegan Mandana,
Wagner Gudrun,
Nader Ingo W.,
FernandezAranda Fernando,
Treasure Janet,
Karwautz Andreas
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.1152
Subject(s) - psychology , psychopathology , somatization , eating disorders , anorexia nervosa , bulimia nervosa , anxiety , logistic regression , depression (economics) , clinical psychology , abnormality , child behavior checklist , psychiatry , conduct disorder , anorexia , distress , medicine , economics , macroeconomics
Objective We wanted to clarify whether there is any clinically relevant behavioural psychopathology in patients before onset of an eating disorder (ED) compared with their healthy sisters and if there are differences in behavioural problems between the ED subtypes anorexia nervosa—restricting type (AN‐R) and EDs with bulimic behaviour. Method Behavioural psychopathology was examined by parental report using the Child Behaviour Checklist retrospectively in 83 sister pairs discordant for an ED (37 with AN‐R and 46 with bulimic EDs) by means of conditional logistic regression. Results Participants who later developed an ED had significantly higher internalizing and externalizing behavioural abnormality scores before onset of the ED than their unaffected sisters. Conditional logistic regression revealed significantly higher internalizing behaviour scores in AN‐R and significantly higher internalizing and externalizing scores in the bulimic disorders. Discussion Internalizing problems (anxiety, depression and somatization) preceded the development of AN, whereas both internalizing and externalizing behaviour problems (aggressive and delinquent behaviour) preceded bulimic disorders. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.