Rottschäfer Charlotte P H, Schewe Danielle, de Zwaan Martina, Strauss Bernhard, Brähler Elmar, Hilbert Anja
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Behavioral Medicine Research Unit, Integrated Research and Treatment Center Adiposity Diseases, Leipzig University Medical Center, Leipzig, Germany.
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Int J Eat Disord. 2025 Aug;58(8):1572-1581. doi: 10.1002/eat.24463. Epub 2025 May 19.
Research on social support, attachment insecurity, and negative affect in night eating syndrome (NES) is sparse, although these factors have been proposed as key components of etiological models in other eating disorders. This study investigated whether individuals with night eating (NE) symptoms reported lower social support, greater attachment insecurity, and increased negative affect compared to those without, and examined if negative affect mediated the relationship between interpersonal problems (lack of social support, attachment insecurity) and NE symptoms.
A representative German population sample of 2423 participants (1297 women, 53.5%) aged between 18 and 92 years completed the Night Eating Questionnaire. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) analyzed differences between individuals with vs. without NE symptoms in social support, attachment insecurity, and negative affect. Mediation analyses examined cross-sectionally negative affect as a mediator on the relationship between interpersonal problems (lacking social support and attachment insecurity) and NE symptoms.
Individuals with NE symptoms reported lower social support (less than small effect), more insecure attachment (small effect), and greater negative affect (small effect) than those without NE symptoms. Negative affect mediated the associations between social support or attachment insecurity and NE symptoms (small effect). All results remained significant after controlling for BMI.
Given elevated interpersonal problems and negative affect in individuals with vs. without NE symptoms, and the evidence of cross-sectional applicability of the interpersonal model to NES, longitudinal research should examine this mediational effect and investigate interpersonal problems and negative affect as potential risk or maintaining factors of NES.
尽管社会支持、依恋不安全感和消极情绪被认为是其他饮食失调病因模型的关键组成部分，但关于夜食症（NES）的相关研究却很少。本研究调查了有夜食（NE）症状的个体与无夜食症状的个体相比，是否报告了更低的社会支持、更高的依恋不安全感和增加的消极情绪，并检验消极情绪是否介导了人际问题（缺乏社会支持、依恋不安全感）与NE症状之间的关系。
2423名年龄在18至92岁之间的德国代表性人群样本（1297名女性，占53.5%）完成了夜食问卷。多变量方差分析（MANOVA）分析了有NE症状与无NE症状个体在社会支持、依恋不安全感和消极情绪方面的差异。中介分析横断面检验了消极情绪作为人际问题（缺乏社会支持和依恋不安全感）与NE症状之间关系的中介变量。
与无NE症状的个体相比，有NE症状的个体报告的社会支持更低（效应量小于小效应）、依恋更不安全（小效应）、消极情绪更高（小效应）。消极情绪介导了社会支持或依恋不安全感与NE症状之间的关联（小效应）。在控制体重指数后，所有结果仍然显著。
鉴于有NE症状与无NE症状个体之间人际问题和消极情绪增加，以及人际模型对NES横断面适用性的证据，纵向研究应检验这种中介效应，并将人际问题和消极情绪作为NES的潜在风险或维持因素进行调查。
