Investigating the roles of experiential avoidance, emotion regulation difficulties and preoccupation with figure and weight in the relationship between post-traumatic stress and disordered eating in a sample of trauma-exposed women

Abstract

This study aimed to test a cross-sectional model investigating the indirect association of experiential avoidance, emotion regulation difficulties, and preoccupation with figure and weight in the relationship between posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and disordered eating (DE) behaviors in a trauma-exposed sample. Participants were 373 women aged between 18 and 58 who reported at least one traumatic event. Data were collected online via the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale for DSM-5 (PDS-5), Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Acceptance and Action Scale-2 (AAS-2), Munich Eating and Feeding Disorder Questionnaire, and Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26) scales. To test the study’s proposed model, cross-sectional path analysis was conducted in AMOS. The findings indicated that without experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties, the pathway of preoccupation with figure and weight was not significant between PTSS and EDs. However, the indirect paths including experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties were significant both in the presence and absence of the preoccupation with figure and weight pathway. Furthermore, increases in experiential avoidance and emotion regulation difficulties were linked to higher levels of binge eating, vomiting, inappropriate compensatory behaviors, and preoccupation with figure and weight, while lower levels of restrictive eating behaviors. The findings were consistent with the literature, suggesting that the association between PTSS and disordered eating is unlikely to be accounted for by a single emotional or cognitive construct, but rather involves multiple indirect pathways. Furthermore, the findings highlight that while emotion regulation difficulties, experiential avoidance and preoccupation in weight and figure were associated with various disordered eating behaviors, they were associated with distinct patterns in different disordered eating symptom presentations.