Family Interactions and Disordered Eating Attitudes: The Mediating Roles of Social Competence and Psychological Distress

This research explored the role of family interactions on young adult females' disordered eating attitudes as mediated by both social competence and psychological distress. Assessment of the family interaction variables included the perspectives of multiple family members: a young adult female, a mother, and a sibling. Results generally supported the proposed model such that family interaction patterns, namely family-expressed emotion, were associated with low social competence, low social competence was associated with psychological distress, and psychological distress was associated with disordered eating attitudes. Practical applications of these results are discussed, as implications of this study draw attention to corrosive family communication patterns and inadequate social competence as key factors related to disordered eating attitudes.