The relationship between parental bonding, social problem solving and eating pathology in an anorexic inpatient sample

Compared with non-anorexia nervosa controls, people with anorexia nervosa report lower positive problem orientation on the Social Problem-Solving Inventory Revised.

“All three studies found, that compared to a non‐AN control group, people with AN report different attitudes toward problem solving than non‐AN controls, namely lower positive problem orientation and higher negative problem orientation.”

People with anorexia nervosa do not differ from non-anorexia nervosa controls on rational problem-solving style on the Social Problem-Solving Inventory Revised.

“However, those with AN show relative strengths in their ability to use a rational problem‐solving style and their scores did not differ from non‐AN controls on this subscale of the SPSRI (Paterson, Power, Yellowlees, Park, & Taylor, 2007; Patterson et al., 2010; Swanson et al., 2010).”

Compared with non-anorexia nervosa controls, people with anorexia nervosa report higher impulsive-careless social problem-solving style.

“These studies also found that people with AN show differences in social problem‐solving styles, reporting a higher impulsive–careless style (i.e., a dysfunctional problem‐solving dimension characterized by active problem‐solving attempts that are impulsive, careless, hurried, and incomplete) and greater avoidance (an avoidance problem‐solving style refers to procrastination, passivity, or inaction”

Compared with non-anorexia nervosa controls, people with anorexia nervosa report higher negative problem orientation on the Social Problem-Solving Inventory Revised.

“All three studies found, that compared to a non‐AN control group, people with AN report different attitudes toward problem solving than non‐AN controls, namely lower positive problem orientation and higher negative problem orientation.”

Compared with non-anorexia nervosa controls, people with anorexia nervosa report greater avoidance social problem-solving style.

“These studies also found that people with AN show differences in social problem‐solving styles, reporting a higher impulsive–careless style (i.e., a dysfunctional problem‐solving dimension characterized by active problem‐solving attempts that are impulsive, careless, hurried, and incomplete) and greater avoidance (an avoidance problem‐solving style refers to procrastination, passivity, or inaction”

A power calculation using GPower, based on data from Swanson et al. (2010), with power set at 80% to detect a medium-sized difference (d = 0.5) or greater and alpha at 0.05, required a minimum of 12 participants per group.

“A power calculation conducted using GPower, based on data collected by Swanson et al., (2010), with power set at 80% to detect a medium‐sized difference (d = 0.5) or greater, and alpha set at 0.05, a minimum of 12 participants were required per group.”

Self-esteem, self-competence, and maternal bonding have been found to mediate relationships between social problem solving and ED pathology.

“Indeed, self‐esteem (Patterson et al., 2010), self‐competence (Paterson et al., 2007), and maternal bonding (Swanson et al., 2010) have been found to mediate relationships between social problem solving and ED pathology.”

The finding that those with AN had lower impulsive-careless social problem-solving styles than controls was incongruent with previous research.

“The finding that those with AN had lower impulsive–careless social problem‐solving styles than controls was incongruent with previous research (Paterson et al., 2007; Patterson et al., 2010; Swanson et al., 2010).”