role of self-related and self-discrepant cognitions in anorexia nervosa and related psychopathology

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20198062

Objective: Self-discrepancy theory, a social-cognitive framework that links self-related cognitions with affect and behavior, provides a viable framework for studying eating disorders. This study presents a rationale for the use of self-discrepancy theory in eating disorder research and evaluates how self-discrepancies relate to affect and eating disorder symptoms in a sample of women with anorexia nervosa (AN). Method: Adult women (N= 118) with full or sub-threshold AN completed baselines measures of self-discrepancies, eating disorder symptoms, depression, and anxiety. Participants then logged two weeks of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data to capture self-discrepancies and eating disorder symptoms. Results: Correlation analyses did not support for the link between unique self-discrepancies and affect. Results from group comparisons of individuals with high and low self-discrepancies partially supported the hypothesis that higher discrepancies would relate to more eating disorder symptoms but this relationship disappeared when appearance-related discrepancies were controlled for in the analyses. Lastly, results from hierarchical linear regression analyses of EMA data did not support the hypothesized link between self-discrepancies and eating disorder symptoms. Conclusion: Findings provided only limited support for the usefulness of self-discrepancy theory to predict distinct affective states or eating disorder symptoms.