What is it about?

Theory suggests that low meaning in life might be an important factor in the development and maintenance of eating disorders. This paper examines the relationship between meaning in life and eating disorder symptoms in a non-clinical sample, taking into account some of the methodological difficulties of earlier studies.

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Why is it important?

As life meaning was not related to eating disorder symptoms in our non-clinical sample, the results of the current study cast doubt on the importance of low meaning in life as a factor in non-clinical eating disorder symptomatology. Thus, meaning in life might only be lowered in individuals with more severe eating disorder symptoms. In this light, life meaning would potentially be less important as a risk factor of eating disorders, making prevention programs focused on life meaning less useful. Instead, a low sense of life meaning would then be better viewed as a maintenance factor, implying that intervention development should focus on clinical samples.

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I hope you find this article interesting!

Sanne van Doornik
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

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This page is a summary of: Brief report: The relationship between eating disorder symptoms and meaning in life., The Humanistic Psychologist, February 2023, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/hum0000312.
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