Core beliefs in eating disorders and dieting

Four groups of women were involved in this study: (1) Patients with eating disorders (ED) who met DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa (n=35). (2) Symptomatic dieters (SD) with past or present partial features of an eating disorder (n=16), (3) Normal dieters (ND) without an eating disorder (n=30), and (4) a Control group (C) of non-dieting, non-eating disordered women (n=34). All women completed: (a). The Young Schema Questionnaire-short-form (YSQ-S1). (b) The Eating Disorders Beliefs Questionnaire (EDBQ). (c) The Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2). (d) The Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition (BDI-II). (e) The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (RSE). (f) A quantitative measure of behavioural features of eating disorders.;In terms of maladaptive core beliefs it was shown that; 1) ED women showed higher levels on most YSQ sub-scales, and the EDBQ negative self-beliefs (EDBQ-NSB) scale than the women in the ND and C groups. They showed higher levels than SD did on the EDBQ-NSB sub-scale and four YSQ sub-scales. 2) ND women showed similar YSQ and EDBQ-NSB levels to C women and 3) SD showed higher YSQ levels then controls on four sub-scales and higher levels than normal dieters did on seven sub-scales. Using the EDBQ-NSB sub-scale SD showed higher levels of core beliefs than dieters and control women did. Measures of eating disordered beliefs, factors associated with eating disorders and disordered eating symptomatology were strongly associated with core beliefs, however, this effect was heavily mediated by levels of self-esteem and depression.;The clinical, academic and research implications for the assessment and treatment of core beliefs as measured by the YSQ and the EDBQ are critically discussed.