Exploring the role of positive mechanisms between early affiliative memories and eating psychopathology

Abstract

A literatura tem sublinhado a importância das experiências afiliativas precoces no desenvolvimento e funcionamento humano. Paralelamente, estudos recentes evidenciaram a relação entre a escassez de memórias positivas precoces e o comportamento alimentar perturbado. No entanto, os mecanismos subjacentes a esta associação permanecem escassos. Este estudo testou um modelo que hipotetiza que as memórias positivas precoces estão negativamente associadas à psicopatologia alimentar, através do social safeness e de uma relação positiva e de cuidado com o corpo. A análise path foi conduzida numa amostra de 490 mulheres e confirmou a adequabilidade do modelo, explicando 51% da variância da psicopatologia alimentar. Adicionalmente, o social safeness e a apreciação positiva do corpo (body appreciation) revelaram-se mediadores do impacto das memórias precoces de calor no comportamento alimentar perturbado, controlando o efeito do IMC. Estes resultados sugerem que o social safeness e a body appreciation poderão ter uma importante contribuição em programas de prevenção de psicopatologia alimentar.

Research on human development and functioning has highlighted the importance of early emotional and relational experiences. Particularly, an association between the absence of early positive memories and the presence of disordered eating has been evidenced by recent investigations. However, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. Using a sample of 490 women, the hypothesis that early positive memories are negatively associated with disordered eating via social safeness and a positive relationship with one’s body image was tested via path analysis. The tested model explained 51% of eating psychopathology’s variance, and revealed a good adjustment to the empirical data. Additionally, social safeness and body appreciation were revealed as mediators of the impact of early warm and safe memories on disordered eating, when controlling for the effect of BMI. These findings suggest the importance of targeting social safeness and acceptance, especially when defining potentially effective programmes for the prevention of eating disorders.