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Cognitive Schemas and Eating Disorder Risk: the Role of Distress Tolerance

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Abstract

The current study tested the role of distress tolerance between cognitive schemas (emotional inhibition, defectiveness/shame, social isolation, and insufficient self-control) and eating disorder (ED) risk in a sample of 469 college students via structural equation analysis. While research indicates maladaptive cognitive schemas are positively associated with dysregulated eating, mechanisms of this relationship are not well established. Distress tolerance has been consistently associated with bulimia behaviors and body dissatisfaction; however, few studies have evaluated the role of distress tolerance in relation to cognitive schemas. In the current study, distress tolerance mediated associations between specific schemas of social isolation and insufficient self-control and eating disorder risk. These findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting specific cognitive schemas may contribute to low distress tolerance, which increases risk of ED-related behaviors and cognitions.

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Funding

This study was funded by The University Research Fellowship and the Department of Psychology.

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  1. University of South Dakota, 414 E Clark St, South Dakota Union Building, Vermillion, SD, 57069, USA

    Lindsey Hovrud, Raluca Simons & Jeffrey Simons

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  1. Lindsey Hovrud
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  2. Raluca Simons
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Correspondence to Lindsey Hovrud.

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Authors Lindsey Hovrud, Raluca Simons, and Jeffrey Simons declare they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors

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Hovrud, L., Simons, R. & Simons, J. Cognitive Schemas and Eating Disorder Risk: the Role of Distress Tolerance. J Cogn Ther 13, 54–66 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41811-019-00055-5

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