Purpose: To evaluate the associations between separation individuation (SI) process and binge eating disorder (BED) in adolescence aged 12-18 years old, as most challenges related to SI process and eating disorders (EDs) tend to arise in this age group.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 30 adolescents diagnosed with BED and 332 healthy adolescents as a control group. All adolescents diagnosed with BED underwent clinical interviews and all adolescents in the study filled in self-reported questionnaires.
Results: Our results highlighted higher levels of need denial (p = 0.014) and rejection expectancy (p = 0.008) of SI difficulties in adolescents with BED as compared to the ones without BED.
Conclusion: This is the first study of its nature providing good evidence for the association between SI process and BED in adolescents. Although these difficulties in SI process by themselves are not evidence of causative link, these results can contribute to the understanding of the causative factors in BED and underpin further research. The correlation can be used as a consideration in the prevention and treatment of BED.
Level of evidence: Level III, case-control analytic study.
Keywords: Adolescent; Binge eating disorder; Separation individuation.