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Differences in emotion regulation difficulties among adults and adolescents across eating disorder diagnoses
Author(s) -
Anderson Leslie K.,
Claudat Kimberly,
Cusack Anne,
Brown Tiffany A.,
Trim Julie,
Rockwell Roxanne,
Nakamura Tiffany,
Gomez Lauren,
Kaye Walter H.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22638
Subject(s) - anorexia nervosa , bulimia nervosa , eating disorders , impulsivity , psychology , clinical psychology , medical diagnosis , young adult , binge eating disorder , psychiatry , binge eating , developmental psychology , medicine , pathology
Objective Although much empirical attention has been devoted to emotion regulation (ER) in individuals with eating disorders, little is known about ER across a wide age range and among different ED subtypes. The current study sought to examine ER in a sample of eating disorder patients. Method A total of 364 adults and adolescents with anorexia nervosa restricting subtype (AN‐R), anorexia nervosa binge/purge subtype (AN‐BP), or bulimia nervosa (BN) were assessed with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Results Older ages were associated with higher DERS total, nonacceptance, goals, and impulsivity scores. When controlling for age, patients with BN and AN‐BP had higher overall DERS scores than those with AN, and there were some differences among diagnostic subtypes on specific facets of ER. Conclusions These results indicate that treatments for emotion dysregulation may be applied across eating disorder diagnoses and ages, and inform how these strategies apply to different diagnostic groups.