PERUMED

This proposal constitutes an innovative research project that links the fields of cognitive psychopathology and health psychology. Using experimental and longitudinal methods, we aim to understand the processes involved in sub-clinical Eating Disorders (ED). To date, research on ED has largely focused on understanding specified disorders (i.e., anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa) that are debilitating conditions. Although promising psychological interventions of specified ED have been proposed, they are still considered to be difficult to treat. The limited usefulness of these treatments may be due to a failure to specifically target the critical pathological processes that underlie ED. Furthermore, although sub-clinical ED (i.e., eating disorders that do not fulfill the criteria for specified ED) may also have far-reaching consequences, they have received much less attention. In addition to the distress they provoke, these sub-clinical ED should be carefully considered because they can precede the development of specified ED. In this proposal, we will focus on the psychological factors that contribute to sub-clinical ED. A wealth of studies suggests that perfectionism could be a causal factor in the development of ED. However, only two studies relied on experimental designs. Moreover, none of these studies have examined the interaction between adaptive perfectionism (i.e., positive strivings, PS) and maladaptive perfectionism (i.e., maladaptive evaluative concerns, MEC) on the outcomes variables. Therefore, one objective of this project will be to test the effect of the four combinations of induced PS and MEC on pressure to be thin, body dissatisfaction and negative affects -three variables assumed to play a core role in ED. Furthermore, we will examine whether the effect of perfectionism on ED are mediated by the three other variables. Given that no questionnaire measuring the pressure to be thin is available in French, we will validate a French version of the Perceived Socio-cultural Pressure questionnaire before conducting the above-mentioned study. Another new promising line of research suggests that depressive rumination as well as ruminations about eating, weight and body shape may play a role in the maintenance of eating disorders. As no questionnaire measuring this latter type of rumination is available in French, we will validate a French version of the Ruminative Response Scale-ED that is designed to assess rumination related to ED concerns. This tool should be useful not only for researchers but also for clinicians. In addition, some authors suggested that the factor determining the constructive vs. unconstructive consequences of rumination does not only lie in their information content but also in the way the information is processed. Two main forms of rumination, one being constructive (i.e., concrete-experiential thinking) and the other unconstructive (i.e., abstract-evaluative thinking) should be distinguished. Only one study on rumination and ED took into account this core distinction. In a second experimental study, we will extend these findings by examining the effect of induced analytic vs. experiential rumination on body dissatisfaction, negative affect and eating symptoms. Furthermore, we will test whether the relationship between rumination and ED is mediated by body dissatisfaction and negative affectivity. Finally, we will test a comprehensive model, involving perfectionism, rumination, pressure to be thin, negative affectivity and ED in a three-wave retrospective study in order to elucidate the contributing role of all these variables in sub-clinical eating symptoms. In this set of studies, we aim to identify critical pathological processes that may constitute risk and maintenance factors for sub-clinical ED. This will enable us to better identify people at risk, and, consequently, better target our preventions. Moreover, the results may contribute to the development of improved treatments of ED.