State-Based Markers of Disordered Eating Symptom Severity

Journal Publication ResearchOnline@JCU
Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, Matthew;Krug, Isabel;Smyth, Joshua M.;Fernandez-Aranda, Fernando;Treasure, Janet;Linardon, Jake;Vasa, Rajesh;Shatte, Adrian
Abstract

Recent work using naturalistic, repeated, ambulatory assessment approaches have uncovered a range of within-person mood- and body image-related dynamics (such as fluctuation of mood and body dissatisfaction) that can prospectively predict eating disorder behaviors (e.g., a binge episode following an increase in negative mood). The prognostic significance of these state-based dynamics for predicting trait-level eating disorder severity, however, remains largely unexplored. The present study uses within-person relationships among state levels of negative mood, body image, and dieting as predictors of baseline, trait-level eating pathology, captured prior to a period of state-based data capture. Two-hundred and sixty women from the general population completed baseline measures of trait eating pathology and demographics, followed by a 7 to 10-day ecological momentary assessment phase comprising items measuring state body dissatisfaction, negative mood, upward appearance comparisons, and dietary restraint administered 6 times daily. Regression-based analyses showed that, in combination, state-based dynamics accounted for 34–43% variance explained in trait eating pathology, contingent on eating disorder symptom severity. Present findings highlight the viability of within-person, state-based dynamics as predictors of baseline trait-level disordered eating severity. Longitudinal testing is needed to determine whether these dynamics account for changes in disordered eating over time.

Journal

Journal of Clinical Medicine

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Volume

9

ISBN/ISSN

2077-0383

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Issue

6

Pages Count

13

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Publisher

MDPI

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EISSN

N/A

DOI

10.3390/jcm9061948