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Transdiagnostic vulnerability factors in eating disorders: A network analysis
Author(s) -
Vervaet Myriam,
Puttevils Louise,
Hoekstra Ria H. A.,
Fried Eiko,
Vanderhasselt MarieAnne
Publication year - 2021
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.2805
Subject(s) - psychology , clinical psychology , vulnerability (computing) , eating disorders , anxiety , perfectionism (psychology) , cognitive vulnerability , centrality , personality , psychological resilience , psychiatry , depressive symptoms , psychotherapist , social psychology , computer security , computer science , mathematics , combinatorics
Objective Eating disorder (ED) symptoms and transdiagnostic vulnerability characteristics play a crucial role in the aetiology and maintenance of EDs. Over the last decade, researchers have started to model complex interrelations between symptoms using network models, but the literature is limited in that it has focused solely on symptoms and investigated‐specific disorders while ignoring transdiagnostic aspects of mental health. Method This study tackles these challenges by investigating network relations among core ED symptoms, comorbid clinical symptoms (depression and anxiety) and empirically supported vulnerability and protective mechanisms (personality traits, maladaptive cognitive schemata, perfectionism and resilience) in a sample of 2302 treatment‐seeking ED patients. We estimated a regularized partial correlation network to obtain conditional dependence relations among all variables. We estimated node centrality (interconnectivity) and node predictability (the overall magnitude of symptom inter‐relationships). Results The findings indicate a central role of overvigilance, excessive focus on inhibiting emotions and feelings, interoceptive awareness and perfectionism. Conclusions These results suggest that excessive control of bodily aspects by dietary restraint (possibly through inhibition) and interoceptive awareness may be important constructs that warrant future research in understanding vulnerability in EDs. We provide all code and data via the Open Science Framework.