Parental bonding and eating psychopathology in bulimia nervosa: personality traits as possible mediators.
OBJECTIVE
The relationship between eating disorders, attachment, personality traits and eating psychopathology remains unexplored. This study tested the mediating role of temperament and character between parental bonding and psychopathology in bulimic women.


METHODS
154 bulimic subjects and 154 healthy controls were compared using Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI), Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Multiple regression analysis tested the mediation of personality traits between parenting and eating psychopathology.


RESULTS
Bulimic subjects displayed low maternal and paternal care and low self-directedness, and high novelty seeking and eating psychopathology. Maternal care was negatively related to social insecurity, inadequacy and impulsiveness. Paternal care predicted novelty seeking, self-directedness, interoceptive awareness, impulsiveness, and asceticism. The mediation effect of self-directedness between paternal care and psychopathology was significant, not the one of novelty seeking.


CONCLUSIONS
Parental care is lower in bulimic than in control women even when controlled for possible confounding variables. Some eating psychopathology traits are related to maternal and paternal care, but not the bulimia subscale. Paternal care is also related to temperament and character traits which are related to eating psychopathology. Self-directedness mediates with different degrees between parenting and eating psychopathology. Clinical implications are discussed.
Regional Pilot Centre for Eating Disorder of Neuroscience Department, Psychiatry Section, University of Torino, Torino, Italy. secondo.fassino@unito.it
Secondo
S
Fassino
Federico
F
Amianto
Giuseppe
G
Rocca
Giovanni Abbate
GA
Daga
D000328:Adult; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010551:Personality; D055815:Young Adult