title: Body-related behaviours and cognitions in the eating disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Different body-related behaviours and cognitions (checking, avoidance, comparison, display) have been shown to be related to unhealthy eating attitudes in a non-clinical sample.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study tested whether the use of body-related behaviours is higher in eating-disordered women than in non-clinical women. It also examined whether the use of body-related behaviours is associated with psychological characteristics (particularly anxiety, depression and narcissistic characteristics), controlling for age and eating pathology.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-nine adult women with diagnosed eating disorders (mean age = 30.4 years, SD = 9.44; mean body mass index = 21.9, SD = 6.39) completed standardized measures of eating pathology, anxiety and depression, narcissistic characteristics, and body-related behaviours and cognitions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Body-Related Behaviours Scale (BRBS) had acceptable levels of internal consistency in this group, and its scales were only weakly to moderately correlated with each other. There were no differences between diagnostic groups, but the clinical group had higher scores that a previous non-clinical sample on three of the scales. The four body-related behaviours had different patterns of association with eating pathology, depression and narcissistic features. However, anxiety was not associated with BRBS scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings support the importance of a wide range of body-related behaviours and cognitions in understanding the eating disorders. However, the lack of an association with anxiety is counter to the suggestion that the various behaviours measured by the BRBS reflect safety behaviours on the part of sufferers. Depression and narcissistic features might be more important in maintaining such behaviours.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, UK.
authors.forename: Reena
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Strauss
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Waller
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D057215:Body Dysmorphic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D055502:Secondary Prevention; D013223:Statistics as Topic