Mediation role of interpersonal problems between insecure attachment and eating disorder psychopathology.

Purpose: Although insecure attachment and interpersonal problems have been acknowledged as risk and maintaining factors of eating disorders (EDs), the mediating role of interpersonal problems between attachment style and ED psychopathology has been poorly explored. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of interpersonal problems between insecure attachment and ED psychopathology.

Methods: One-hundred-nine women with anorexia nervosa and 157 women with bulimia nervosa filled in the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) and the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) revised scale to assess ED core symptoms and attachment styles, respectively. Interpersonal difficulties were evaluated by the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-32). A mediator's path model was conducted with anxious and avoidant attachment subscores as independent variables, ED core symptoms as dependent variables and interpersonal difficulties as mediators. The diagnosis was entered in the model as a confounding factor.

Results: The socially inhibited/avoidant interpersonal dimension was a mediator between avoidant attachment and the drive to thinness as well as between avoidant attachment and body dissatisfaction. An indirect connection was found between attachment-related anxiety and bulimic symptoms through the mediation of intrusive/needy score.

Conclusions: Social avoidance and intrusiveness mediate the relationships between avoidant and anxious attachment styles and ED psychopathology. These interpersonal problems may represent specific targets for psychotherapeutic treatments in individuals with EDs and insecure attachment.

Level of evidence: Level III: Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case-control analytic studies.