Emotional development in eating disorders: A qualitative metasynthesis

Emotions are considered to be an important feature in eating disorders. The present study aimed to conduct a systematic review and metasynthesis of qualitative studies, which considered the role of emotions in eating disorders in order to gain further insight on how these individuals experience vari...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical psychology and psychotherapy 2019-07, Vol.26 (4), p.440-457
Main Authors: Henderson, Ziporah B., Fox, John R.E., Trayner, Penny, Wittkowski, Anja
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Comprehensive Review
Eating disorders
emotional regulation
Emotions
Emotions - physiology
Feeding and Eating Disorders - physiopathology
Feeding and Eating Disorders - psychology
Humans
metasynthesis review
qualitative research
social
Social behavior
Social environment
Systematic review
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Emotions are considered to be an important feature in eating disorders. The present study aimed to conduct a systematic review and metasynthesis of qualitative studies, which considered the role of emotions in eating disorders in order to gain further insight on how these individuals experience various emotions and the strategies they use to manage them. Databases including Web of Science, PsychInfo, EMBASE, Medline, and the Cochrane library were searched for qualitative studies. The search identified 16 relevant studies. Meta‐ethnography was used to synthesize the data, which involved identifying the key findings and concepts of the studies and creating metaphors. The synthesis involved reciprocal translations and lines of argument approaches being applied to the present data. Results of the synthesis identified four second‐order themes and one third‐order theme relating to the emotional experiences of such individuals. The second‐order themes were (a) negative emotional environments, (b) interpersonal vulnerability, (c) the experience of negative emotions in social contexts, and (d) the management of emotions. The third‐order theme was the emotional self within a social environment. This is the first metasynthesis on emotions and eating disorders, and our synthesis highlights the important role that emotions play in the development and maintenance of eating disorders. Our model demonstrates how poor emotional development whilst growing up results in development of poor socioemotional bonds and the inability to handle negative emotions. The most significant finding of the review is that individuals use their eating disorder to manage negative emotions.
ISSN:1063-3995
1099-0879
DOI:10.1002/cpp.2365