Emotional responding and distress tolerance in women at high vs. low risk for eating disorders in response to physical and cognitive stress

Eleni Iasonidou, Elena Constantinou, Nuno Ferreira, Maria Koushiou

Abstract


Background: Disordered eating has been theorised to function as a maladaptive way of coping with negative affect. The current study aimed to comprehensively assess emotional responding and distress tolerance to a cognitive and a physical distress tolerance task using physiological (heart rate), self-report and behavioural measures (latency to quit task).


Methods: 56 women at high vs. 58 at low eating disorder risk completed the “Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task-Computerised” (PASAT-C) and the “Breath-holding Task” (BHT) and provided their affective ratings upon completion of the tasks. Heart rate was recorded during both tasks. Distress tolerance was assessed via a self-report measure, while latency to quit each task was used as a behavioural index of distress tolerance.


Results: Participants at high risk for eating disorders had higher heart rate during both tasks and reported significantly more unpleasantness and less control after the PASAT-C compared to the low-risk group. Shorter latency to quit the PASAT-C was evidenced in the high vs. low-risk group suggesting lower tolerance for cognitive distress. Breath-holding duration did not differ between the two groups.


Conclusions: Greater physiological and subjective arousal to distressing situations in high-risk individuals indicates a potential hypersensitivity to negative affect, possibly increasing eating disorder vulnerability. Potential implications for eating disorder prevention and management are discussed.

Keywords


Eating disorder risk; Distress tolerance; Emotional responding; PASAT-C; BHT; Clinical Psychology.

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.13129/2282-1619/mjcp-3796

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