Insecure Attachment and Eating Pathology in Early Adolescence: Role of Emotion Regulation

The present study investigated whether associations exist between attachment dimensions toward mother and different forms of eating pathology (EP) in a group of early adolescent boys and girls, and whether these associations were mediated by maladaptive emotion regulation (ER) strategies. Developmentally appropriate self-report questionnaires were administered to a community sample of 952 early adolescents ((X) over bar (age) = 12.19, 54.6% female). The results demonstrated associations between the insecure attachment dimensions and the different forms of EP. Moreover, the relationships between both attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance toward mother on the one hand and restraint and EP concerns on the other hand, were partially mediated by maladaptive ER. These results assign an important role to maladaptive ER, in explaining the relationship between insecure attachment and EP. Future longitudinal research should replicate and elaborate on these findings.