Department of Education Science, University of Catania, Catania 95125, Italy.
Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2013 Oct 31;12(1):34. doi: 10.1186/1744-859X-12-34.
Adolescence represents one of the critical transitions in the life span and is characterized by a tremendous pace in growth and change that is second only to that of infancy. Both biological and psychological changes occurring during early adolescence may also influence the definition of subsequent late adolescence or early adulthood physiological or (psycho)-pathological features, including bulimia nervosa (BN) whenever occurring. Therefore, a pre-emptive assessment of suggestive psychological traits, including bulimic ones, during early and late years of adolescence, is recommended and represents the goal of the present study.
Six hundred and eight healthy volunteers attending mid- or high school, aged 14-19 years, were consecutively enrolled at multiple sites in Eastern Sicily, Italy. A systematic psychological assessment was performed, including McCrae and Costa' BigFive, the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), Bisantis's Assertivity test and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale for Children and Adolescents. Demographic and general characteristics, including the body mass index, were also recorded. Based on hierarchical considerations, cases were then divided into 'younger' ('early' years, 14-16) and 'older' ('late' years, 17-19) adolescents.
Upon descriptive and Pearson's correlation analyses, the following EDI constructs 'drive to thinness' and 'bulimia' scored significantly higher (both p = <.001) in 'early' vs. 'late' cases. Conversely, BigFive 'conscientiousness' was higher in older subjects vs. early cases (p = <.003). As expected, 'drive to thinness' positively correlated with BN both in early (r = .31) and late (r = .50) cases. In the 'late' group, age correlated with conscientiousness (r = .206) while BN correlated with drive to thinness (r = .505); finally, a negative correlation was observed with regard to consciousness and BN (r = -.19).
Despite intrinsic methodological limits, our preliminary findings confirm that the transition between early and late years of adolescence is a critical phase of life span, with the consolidation of 'conscientiousness' eventually playing a protective role towards the onset of bulimic traits. If confirmed by replication studies, ideally providing long-term follow-ups too, an early acknowledgement of bulimic traits may play a major predictive role for subsequent BN, ultimately contributing to more effective pre-emptive interventions as well.
青春期是人生的重要转折点之一，其特点是生长和变化的速度非常快，仅次于婴儿期。青春期早期发生的生理和心理变化也可能影响后续青春期后期或成年早期的生理或（心理）病理特征，包括神经性贪食症（BN）。因此，建议在青春期早期和晚期对包括贪食特征在内的暗示性心理特征进行预防性评估，这是本研究的目标。
在意大利西西里岛东部的多个地点，连续招募了 608 名年龄在 14-19 岁的健康中学生志愿者。对他们进行了系统的心理评估，包括 McCrae 和 Costa 的五大人格特质、饮食障碍量表（EDI）、Bisantis 的自信测试和 Liebowitz 儿童和青少年社交焦虑量表。还记录了人口统计学和一般特征，包括体重指数。根据分层考虑，将病例分为“年轻”（“早期”，14-16 岁）和“年长”（“晚期”，17-19 岁）青少年。
在描述性和 Pearson 相关分析中，“对瘦的渴望”和“贪食”这两个 EDI 结构在“早期”病例中得分显著高于“晚期”病例（均 p<0.001）。相反，五大人格特质中的“尽责性”在年长组中的得分高于早期组（p<0.003）。正如预期的那样，“对瘦的渴望”与早期（r=0.31）和晚期（r=0.50）病例的 BN 呈正相关。在“晚期”组中，年龄与尽责性呈正相关（r=0.206），而 BN 与对瘦的渴望呈正相关（r=0.505）；最后，与意识和 BN 呈负相关（r=-0.19）。
尽管存在内在的方法学限制，但我们的初步发现证实，青春期早期和晚期之间的过渡是生命跨度的一个关键阶段，“尽责性”的巩固最终对贪食特征的发生起到了保护作用。如果复制研究得到证实，理想情况下也提供长期随访，那么对贪食特征的早期认识可能对随后的 BN 具有主要的预测作用，最终有助于更有效的预防性干预。
