DClinPsy Portfolio Volume 1 of 3 - University of Hertfordshire ...

Summary of additional findings
The additional research questions focused on the information collected as background
hypothesised to act as further contributing factors. An eating disorder history in the
family of the adolescent participants was considered in relation to inflexibility and a
mean difference was found so that those that reported an ED family history had higher
inflexibility scores. Furthermore, ED history was found to have a borderline significance
in relation to EDR. These findings may indicate that an ED history in the family may
increase the adolescents EDR and their inflexibility. The way this may occur will need
further exploration. Social factors including family relations and learnt behaviours (as
described in the Introduction) may explain this occurrence. Mental illness history was not
related to inflexibility nor EDR. A significant mean difference was found between the
BMI categories in relation to ED history with those in the overweight and underweight
groups reporting a higher mean ED history. This suggests that those with a history of
over/underweight BMI’s in the family may have both biological (i.e. genetic factors,
Clement, Boutin, and Froguel, 2002) and environmental factors (e.g. learning certain
eating habits, exposure to more frequent opportunities for the consumption of high fat
foods, James and Peters, 1998) that make their weight more likely to follow suit.
In relation to drug and alcohol use there was no association with inflexibility. It was
thought that drug and alcohol use would be higher in those with higher inflexibility. Such
behaviours could be being used by these individuals as secondary avoidance strategies to
deal with the emotional consequences of managing adverse emotional experiences as
disordered eating would be. Although this was not supported there was a mean difference
between the EDR groups with an association between the higher EDR group and drug
and alcohol use. Thus, those at risk of an ED were more at risk of drug and alcohol abuse.
This may be because these individuals are more prone to risk taking behaviours without a
shared psychological process applying. Moreover, bullying and perfectionism were not
found to be associated with EDR as was hypothesised. Perfectionism has been implicated
in the maintenance of EDs especially AN, (e.g. Fairburn and Shafran, 2003), it may be
that perfectionism is only relevant in the clinical EDs as opposed to sub-clinical levels.
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