Subjective Well-Being in a Sample of Women with Eating Disorders

The literature has found that eating disorder patients usually have a depression and anxiety diagnosis. However, not many investigations have studied the relationship between eating disorders and subjective well-being. For this reason, in this study we analyzed if women with an eating disorder diagnosis have less subjective well-being than a control group (normal weight participants). One hundred and four participants (35 with anorexia nervosa, 28 with bulimia nervosa, 16 with eating disorder not otherwise specified and 25 controls) were selected to conduct the study. It was found that women with eating disorders reported less satisfaction with life and positive affect than the control group, but there were not statically significant differences in negative affect. According to the results, it can be concluded that reports of subjective well-being problems were much more common in participants with eating disorders than in the control group (female individuals without body dissatisfaction).