Association between attitudes towards body image, negative emotions about one's own body and self-state representations in a clinical sample of eating disordered women

Aim. The purpose of the study was to assess the body image disturbance in patients with eating disorders. Methods. The clinical samples include 25 women with anorexia nervosa, 25 with bulimia nervosa and 30 normal weight women. All participants were assessed with the Body Attitude Test, the Body Dissatisfaction Scale and the Contour Drawing Rating Scale and their clinical and sociodemographic features were recorded. Results. In patients with anorexia ideal self, that is one's representation of the attributes that someone would like the person to possess (the patient's perspective), is less pathological compared to the patients with bulimia. However, the ought self, that is, one's representation of the attributes that someone believes the person should possess (the perceived perspective of family and friends), is more pathological in group with anorexia nervosa. Conclusions. The correlations between the examined variables of body image, as well as the results of a structural analysis using PRINCALS, were interpreted at the light of the state-of-the-art in body image disturbance. Results are discussed on the background of social comparison literature.