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Body-Related Behaviours and Cognitions in the Eating Disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2012

Reena Amin ,
Clara Strauss  and
Glenn Waller
Reena Amin*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Clara Strauss
Affiliation:
University of Surrey and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Glenn Waller
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield, UK
*
Reprint requests to Reena Amin, iCOPE, Islington Psychological Therapies and Wellbeing Service, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, Hill House, 5th Floor, 17 Highgate Hill, London N19 5NA, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background: Different body-related behaviours and cognitions (checking, avoidance, comparison, display) have been shown to be related to unhealthy eating attitudes in a non-clinical sample. Aims: This study tested whether the use of body-related behaviours is higher in eating-disordered women than in non-clinical women. It also examined whether the use of body-related behaviours is associated with psychological characteristics (particularly anxiety, depression and narcissistic characteristics), controlling for age and eating pathology. Method: Ninety-nine adult women with diagnosed eating disorders (mean age = 30.4 years, SD = 9.44; mean body mass index = 21.9, SD = 6.39) completed standardized measures of eating pathology, anxiety and depression, narcissistic characteristics, and body-related behaviours and cognitions. Results: The Body-Related Behaviours Scale (BRBS) had acceptable levels of internal consistency in this group, and its scales were only weakly to moderately correlated with each other. There were no differences between diagnostic groups, but the clinical group had higher scores that a previous non-clinical sample on three of the scales. The four body-related behaviours had different patterns of association with eating pathology, depression and narcissistic features. However, anxiety was not associated with BRBS scores. Conclusions: The findings support the importance of a wide range of body-related behaviours and cognitions in understanding the eating disorders. However, the lack of an association with anxiety is counter to the suggestion that the various behaviours measured by the BRBS reflect safety behaviours on the part of sufferers. Depression and narcissistic features might be more important in maintaining such behaviours.

Keywords

Body imagebehaviourseating disorders
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 65 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2012 

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