Eating disorders, attachment and interpersonal difficulties: a comparison between 18‐ to 24‐year‐old patients and normal controls

This study tested the connection between eating disorder symptoms, insecure attachment, and other interpersonal difficulties. The sample consisted of 145 female patients (aged 18 to 24 years), who had attended an outpatient clinic for eating disorders in the city of Göteborg, Sweden, and 315 women chosen at random from the city's Population Register. Subjects filled in the Relationship Questionnaire (Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991 ) and the Eating Disorders Inventory‐2 (Garner, 1991 ). The results confirm the link between eating disorders, insecure attachment and interpersonal problems that has been found in other studies, and extends it to women in the normal control group who report that they have previously had eating disorder problems. Our results further indicate that severity of eating disorders problems is related to security of attachment, whereas type of eating disorder is related to scores on the psychological subscales of the EDI‐2. The implications for psychological treatment are discussed.