The behavioral and affective profile of inpatient adolescent girls with restrictive anorexia nervosa.

BACKGROUND

A better understanding of the individual difficulties reported by adolescents presenting with anorexia nervosa seems like an interesting avenue to refine our understanding of their psychological functioning.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to: (1) describe the behavioral and affective profile of difficulties of inpatient adolescent girls presenting a restricting type of anorexia (ANR); and (2) investigate the presence of a relationship between behavioral and affective problems and severity of the disorder.

METHODS

The sample consisted of 52 inpatient adolescent girls presenting an ANR. The youth self report assessed the behavioral and emotional profile of difficulties of participants while the Eating Disorder Risk Composite of the Eating Disorder Inventory measured the symptomatology of the disorder. A ratio between body mass index at admission and at the end of the treatment served as an indicator of weight gain.

RESULTS

The sample presented an internalized profile of problems. Individual differences were found and three profiles of difficulties were present in the sample: normative, pure internalizing and mixed (clinical on the internalizing and externalizing clusters).

CONCLUSION

This study provides information on the heterogeneity of this specific population otherwise quite similar and demonstrates how severity of the disorder can be associated with a wide range of other behavioral and affective difficulties.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.