Striving as a paradoxical strategy to deal with fears of compassion: impact on disordered eating
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Purpose Recent literature has documented the relationship between fears of compassion and disordered eating attitudes and behaviours. However, research on the processes underlying this association is still in the early stages. As such, this study tested a mediator model where insecure striving and inflexible eating (i.e. psychological inflexibility focused on eating) were hypothesized to mediate the impact of fears of compassion on the severity of disordered eating, while controlling for the effects of body mass index and age.Methods The study's sample comprised 310 Portuguese women from the general population, aged between 18 and 65 years, who completed an online survey.Results Path analysis results revealed that the impact of fear of compassion for self and for others on disordered eating was fully mediated by insecure striving and inflexible eating, whereas the impact of fear of compassion from others was only partly mediated by these processes. The tested model accounted for 48% of disordered eating's variance and presented excellent fit indices.Conclusions These results suggest that fears of experiencing compassion may preclude the experience of social safeness, hindering the activation of social mentalities other than rank-focused mentality. Maladaptive competitive strategies may ensue (insecure striving), such as inflexible eating, which is linked to the development of disordered eating. In terms of clinical implications, these findings stress the need to effectively assess and address fears of compassion, as they not only seem to be involved in the development of disordered eating, but also have been reported to be significant predictors of poor treatment outcomes.Level of evidence Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.
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People with SE-AN may find it difficult to develop trust in clinicians, reject and defend against receiving compassion, and reaffirm their belief and investment in AN as a safe harbour.
“We may therefore find it difficult to develop trust in clinicians [181], reject and defend against receiving compassion [182–184], and reaffirm our belief and investment in AN as a safe harbour.”
From A lived experience response to the proposed diagnosis of terminal anorexia nervosa: learning from iatrogenic harm, ambivalence and enduring hope (2023) · cites this paper as [183]
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- Authors
- Duarte, J. A., Mendes, A. L., Marta-Simões, J., & Ferreira, C.
- Affiliations
- University of Coimbra (PT)
- Corresponding author
- Ferreira, Cláudia
- Venue
- Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity
- Published
- 2019-05-23
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 983-990
- ISSN
- 1124-4909 (ISSN-L)
- 1590-1262
- OpenAlex
- W2945770359
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia Bulimia and Obesity (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Body Image and Dysmorphia Studies
- Keywords
- disordered eating, psychological inflexibility, social safeness, competitive strategy, mediation, women, body mass index
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Feeding and Eating Disorders, Body Image, Cross-Sectional Studies, Empathy, Fear, Feeding Behavior, Female, Humans, Middle Aged, Self Concept, Shame, Young Adult
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