Childhood maltreatment, alexithymia and eating disorder psychopathology: A mediation model

Abstract

Background: The relationship between childhood maltreatment and eating disorder psychopathology has been under-investigated.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of alexithymia in mediating the relationship between childhood maltreatment experiences and eating disorder (ED) symptoms.

Participants and setting: One-hundred-forty-three women with anorexia nervosa, 110 women with bulimia nervosa and 108 healthy women filled in the Eating Disorder Inventory-2, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20).

Methods: A mediator path model including childhood trauma types as predictors, the subscales of the TAS-20 as mediators and ED specific symptoms as dependent variables was conducted in individuals with EDs and in healthy women.

Results: In women with EDs emotional abuse was directly associated with body dissatisfaction and was associated to drive to thinness, bulimia and body dissatisfaction through the mediation of difficulties to identify emotions. In healthy women, physical neglect was directly associated to drive to thinness and bulimia, but no significant mediation effect through alexithymia emerged.

Conclusion: Impaired emotion recognition mediates the association between childhood emotional abuse and ED symptoms. Individuals with early emotional abuse may experience ED symptoms to manage confused emotional perceptions. Improving emotional understanding and acceptance may be a treatment target in early maltreated individuals with EDs.

Keywords: Alexithymia; Childhood maltreatment; Eating disorders; Emotion; Mediation analysis.