Abstract
Background
A better understanding of the individual difficulties reported by adolescents presenting with anorexia nervosa seems like an interesting avenue to refine our understanding of their psychological functioning.
Objective
This study aimed to: (1) describe the behavioral and affective profile of difficulties of inpatient adolescent girls presenting a restricting type of anorexia (ANR); and (2) investigate the presence of a relationship between behavioral and affective problems and severity of the disorder.
Methods
The sample consisted of 52 inpatient adolescent girls presenting an ANR. The youth self report assessed the behavioral and emotional profile of difficulties of participants while the Eating Disorder Risk Composite of the Eating Disorder Inventory measured the symptomatology of the disorder. A ratio between body mass index at admission and at the end of the treatment served as an indicator of weight gain.
Results
The sample presented an internalized profile of problems. Individual differences were found and three profiles of difficulties were present in the sample: normative, pure internalizing and mixed (clinical on the internalizing and externalizing clusters).
Conclusion
This study provides information on the heterogeneity of this specific population otherwise quite similar and demonstrates how severity of the disorder can be associated with a wide range of other behavioral and affective difficulties.
Level of evidence
Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Société et Culture (FRQSC).
Funding
This study was funded by FRQSC (Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société et Culture), Award number: R0019054.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the research ethic committee of the Ste-Justine University Children’s Health Center in Montreal (Comité d’Éthique à la Recherche-CÉR) which is affiliated to the University of Montréal. There is a collaboration agreement between the research ethic committee of the University of Montreal (FAS) and the CÉR as both are affiliated together.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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This article is part of topical collection on Personality and Eating and Weight Disorders.
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Paquin Hodge, C., Meilleur, D., Taddeo, D. et al. The behavioral and affective profile of inpatient adolescent girls with restrictive anorexia nervosa. Eat Weight Disord 24, 645–649 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-019-00727-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-019-00727-3