Coping style and disturbed eating attitudes in adolescent girls

Objective: The main goal of this work was to explore the relationship between coping styles and predisposition to eating disorders in a sample of adolescent girls. Method: The sample comprised 186 females (mean age 15.91 years) and the questionnaires used were the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2) and the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS). Results: The regression analyses indicated that the coping strategy most closely linked to the predisposition to develop an eating disorder was intropunitive avoidance, which explained the following percentage of variance: 29% of the total EDI-2 score, 23% of the personal factor, 28% of the social factor, and 4% of the bodily factor. On the other hand, the scale of intropunitive avoidance dimension with the most explanatory power was the tension reduction, which reflects emotional reactions to problems such as crying, shouting, or taking drugs. Discussion: A cultural hypothesis is presented in an attempt to account for the low percentage of variance of bodily factor explained by intropunitive avoidance and emphasis is placed on the need for prevention programs for adolescents, particularly those at risk. (C) 2002 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.