Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, 12th Floor Redmond Barry Building, Parkville Campus, Melbourne, VIC, 3010, Australia.
Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Eat Weight Disord. 2021 Oct;26(7):2309-2316. doi: 10.1007/s40519-020-01094-0. Epub 2021 Jan 2.
Autism spectrum disorder traits have been implicated in the psychopathology of eating disorders and may also be relevant for the development of orthorexia symptoms. Further, intolerance of uncertainty (IUS) may indirectly contribute to the development of disordered eating, as the displacement of anxiety onto food may help achieve a sense of control and maximise certainty. We examined a new cognitive model of eating pathology which assessed the role of IU and orthorexia symptoms as potential mediators of the relationship between autistic traits and disordered eating in a community sample.
Three-hundred-and-ninety-six female participants (M = 20.07, SD = 4.52 years old) completed an online self-report questionnaire which assessed the variables of interest.
Despite finding significant bivariate correlations, our model results showed that autistic traits did not directly predict disordered eating or orthorexia symptoms. Significant indirect relationships were found between autistic traits and eating disorder symptoms through both IU and orthorexia symptoms.
The findings provide partial support for our proposed model suggesting that autistic traits may increase the vulnerability for disordered eating, not directly, but through their associations with mechanisms such as IU and the development of problematic eating behaviours typical of orthorexia. Future research should focus on whether targeting IU may assist in preventing the development of disordered eating.
Level V, cross-sectional descriptive study.
自闭症谱系障碍特征与饮食障碍的精神病理学有关，也可能与矫枉过正症状的发展有关。此外，无法容忍不确定性（IUS）可能会间接地导致饮食障碍的发展，因为将焦虑转移到食物上可以帮助获得控制感并最大限度地提高确定性。我们检验了一个新的进食病理认知模型，该模型评估了 IU 和矫枉过正症状作为自闭症特征与社区样本中饮食障碍之间关系的潜在中介因素的作用。
396 名女性参与者（M=20.07，SD=4.52 岁）完成了一项在线自我报告问卷，该问卷评估了感兴趣的变量。
尽管发现了显著的双变量相关性，但我们的模型结果表明，自闭症特征并不能直接预测饮食障碍或矫枉过正症状。通过 IU 和矫枉过正症状，自闭症特征与饮食障碍症状之间存在显著的间接关系。
研究结果部分支持了我们提出的模型，表明自闭症特征可能会增加饮食障碍的脆弱性，而不是直接通过与 IU 等机制的关联和发展矫枉过正的典型问题性进食行为来增加。未来的研究应重点关注针对 IU 是否可以帮助预防饮食障碍的发展。
五级，横断面描述性研究。
