%0 Journal Article
%T Temperament and Eating Attitudes in an Adolescent Community Sample: A Brief Report
%A Enrica Marzola
%A Secondo Fassino
%A Federico Amianto
%A Giovanni Abbate-Daga
%J Advances in Psychiatry
%D 2014
%R 10.1155/2014/749738
%X Objective. Temperament traits like high harm avoidance (HA) have been proposed as putative risk factors for the development of eating disorders (EDs). We aimed at studying the relationship between temperament and eating attitudes on a large community sample of adolescents. Method. We recruited 992 high school students aged 14¨C18. In addition to measuring body mass index (BMI), participants were asked to complete the temperament and character inventory and the food frequency questionnaire. Results. Sixty-two percent of the sample reported overeating, 22.8% reported normal eating, and 15.2% reported under eating. Under and normal eaters had higher BMI than that of over eaters. Harm avoidance was found to be significantly higher in those participants with lower eating intakes whilst novelty seeking was found to be higher in over eaters. Conclusion. An interesting association between temperament (high HA) and food approach (under eating) emerged. Longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate whether these traits represent a risk factor for the development of EDs. 1. Introduction Eating disorders (EDs) are serious illnesses characterized by high comorbidity and mortality, life-threatening sequelae, and low quality of life. Notwithstanding the recent insights into the mechanisms underpinning and maintaining such disorders, to date their aetiology remains unknown and uncertainty persists on what to consider as vulnerability factors. Among various other posited factors, personality has been called into question as regards ED developmental trajectories. According to the widely used instrument temperament and character inventory (TCI) [1], high scores on the temperament dimension of harm avoidance (HA) are shared by both actively ill and recovered individuals [2]; although its role is not univocal, these lines of research seem to propose it as candidate risk factor for the development of EDs [3]. More in detail, the rationale for considering personality as risk factor could be represented by its role in modulating coping abilities, namely, those responses based on personal vulnerability to stressors that are shared by many individuals. Earlier studies showed how the combination of high HA and low self-directedness may impair the ability to face distress [4] and recent research proposed that personality traits may indirectly influence eating attitudes and food approach through thin-ideal internalization [5]. In addition to an earlier study [6] focusing on disordered eating in adolescents, with the present report we aimed to assess the relationship between
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/apsy/2014/749738/