Risk and Maintenance Factors for Eating Disorders: An Exploration of Multivariate Models on Clinical and Non-Clinical Populations

The recognition of factors involved in the development and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs) may support the choice of therapeutic strategies and improve the prevention/treatment of eating pathologies and their outcomes. Based on this consideration, the overall purpose of the chapter is to investigate how some psychological characteristics link to EDs. It is organized as follows. First, the epidemiological aspects, risk, and maintaining factors for ED are outlined. Next, we present the findings from our two studies. The purpose of the first study was to identify predictors associated with the severity of eating symptomatology. Then, the objec-tive of the second study was to provide an understanding of the relationship among perceived parental bonding, self-esteem, perfectionism, body shame, body mass index, and ED risk and mainly to test a predictive ED risk model in a non-clinical sample. In conclusion, the major findings and practical implications are discussed.