Investigation of mindfulness and associated factors in adolescents with anorexia nervosa: Perfectionism, emotion regulation and rumination

This is a cross-sectional study comparing adolescents diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (AN), those in the remission period of the disease and adolescents without any psychiatric disease, in terms of perfectionism, rumination, emotion regulation and mindfulness skills. Additionally, the relationship of these variables with symptoms of eating disorders, symptoms of depression and anxiety was evaluated. Seventy six adolescents between the ages 12-18 were enrolled in the study, 20 in AN group, 16 in remission group and 40 in healthy control group that matched for age, gender and socioeconomic-sociocultural level. Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children- Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL) was use to confirm previous and current AN disease in research group and to exclude any psychiatric disease in healthy control group. All adolescents completed Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire –EDE-Q, Five Facets Mindfulness Questionaire-FFMQ, The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale –DERS, Body Image Satisfaction Questionnaire –BISQ,Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale - FMPS, Ruminative Response Scale Short Version – RRS-SV. Additionally, Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Disorders (SCARED) were used. As a result, it was shown that adolescents with AN had higher eating disorder severity, had more emotional regulation difficulties, perfectionism, brooding thinking and had less mindfulness skills, thus when scale scores were corrected according to depression and anxiety levels, only the difference in eating disorder symptom severity showed significance. While dissatisfaction from body areas in the AN group was predictive of eating disorder symtoms, difficulties in emotion regulation were predictive of mindfulness. When the whole sample was evaluated, it was determined that dissatisfaction from body areas and depressive symptoms were predictive of eating disorder symptoms, and emotion regulation difficulties and perfectionism were predictive of midfulness skills.