Early memories of warmth and safeness and eating psychopathology: The mediating role of social safeness and body appreciation

Abstract

Research on human development and functioning has highlighted the importance of earlyemotional and relational experiences. Particularly, an association between the absenceof early positive memories and the presence of disordered eating has been evidenced byrecent investigations. However, the study of the mechanisms underlying this associationremains unclear.Using a sample of 490 women, the hypothesis that early positive memories are negativelyassociated with disordered eating via social safeness and a positive relationship withone’s body image was tested via path analysis. The tested model explained 51% of eatingpsychopathology’s variance, and revealed a good adjustment to the empirical data. Additionally, social safeness and body appreciation were revealed as mediators of the impact of early warm and safe memories on disordered eating, when controlling for the effect of BMI.These findings suggest the importance of targeting social safeness and acceptance, especiallywhen defining potentially effective programmes for the prevention of eating disorders.