The Influence Of Adult Attachment On Abnormal Eating Behavior: The Mediating Role Of Alexithymia

Objective: The people who is be evaluated for alexithymia is who can not express their emotional feelings correctly,and lack the ability to describe their own emotions and identify others emotions.Previous studies have suggested that alexithymia may plays an important role in the relationship between adult attachment and abnormal eating behavior.This study mainly explored the relationship between adult attachment,alexithymia and abnormal eating behavior,and assessed whether alexithymia played a mediating role in the relationship between adult attachment and abnormal eating behavior.We also want to know whether there are some diffirences of the ability of identitying others' emotions betwwen people who is be evaluated for abnormal eating behavior and normal people.Methods: Study 1: 338 college students were tested with the Adult Attachment Scale(AAS),the Toronto Alexithymia Scale(TAS-20)and the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire(DEBQ).Pearson correlation analysis,independent sample T test and mediation analysis were used to analyze the data,and to explore the relationship between adult attachment,emotional inability and abnormal eating behavior.Study 2,We ranked the subjects in study 1 from high to low according to the score of DEBQ,select the top 10% as high group(n=25),and the last 10% as low group(n=25),respectively,to participate in the Adult Eyes Test,and compare the differences between the two groups in recognizing other people's emotions.Results: Attachment avoidance score of AAS was significantly positively correlated with TAS-20 affective discrimination(r=0.281,p<0.01),affective description(r=0.339,p<0.01),and extraverted thinking(r=0.153,p<0.01).Attachment anxiety was significantly positively correlated with affective discrimination(r=0.315,p<0.01)and affective description(r=0.337,p<0.01).Attachment avoidance was positively correlated with restricted eating score(r=0.135,p<0.05)and emotional eating score(r=0.157,p<0.01).Attachment anxiety was positively correlated with restricted eating score(r=0.171,p<0.05)and emotional eating score(r=0.176,p<0.01).Emotional discrimination was positively correlated with inhibitive eating(r=0.172,p<0.01)and emotional eating(r=0.212,p<0.01).Alexithymia plays a mediating role in predicting the effects of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance on restrictive and emotional eating.The results of study 2 showed that the score of DEBQ high group was significantly lower than that of DEBQ low group(t=-2.02,p<0.05)Conclusion: Abnormal eating behavior is related to the unsafe adult attachment and the alexithymia,and the emotional discrimination plays a mediating role in the prediction effect of attachment anxiety,attachment avoidance on restricted eating and emotional eating.At the same time,behavioral test found that the ability of abnormal eating people to recognize the emotions of others was significantly lower than that of normal eating people.The results of this study help to understand the role of insecure attachment in the early development of eating disorders.