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Surgery and parental separation as potential risk factors for abnormal eating attitudes—longitudinal study
Author(s) -
Bachar Eytan,
Stein Daniel,
Canetti Laura,
Gur Eitan
Publication year - 2008
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.868
Subject(s) - eating disorders , intervention (counseling) , affect (linguistics) , psychology , post hoc analysis , psychiatry , clinical psychology , longitudinal study , medicine , obesity , psychological intervention , association (psychology) , psychotherapist , pathology , communication
Due to the susceptibility of eating disorders (ED) to stressful life events, we wanted to examine longitudinally whether two childhood adversities: (1) surgery and (2) parental separation, will affect abnormal eating attitudes in adolescents. Consecutively for 4 years, the eating attitude test (EAT‐26) and the eating disorder inventory‐2 (EDI‐2) questionnaires were administered to students from grades 7th through 10th and 8th through 11th. Multilevel analysis revealed that parental separation and oral or cosmetic dermatologic surgeries were significantly correlated with EAT‐26 and EDI‐2 scores throughout the 4 years of the study. Post‐hoc interpretation suggests a connection between (A) chirurgic intervention in the oral cavity and problematic eating attitudes, and (B) cosmetic dermatologic surgery and greater awareness to body appearance—a feature which might characterize adolescents who are prone to develop ED. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.