Internalized anger, self-control, and mastery experience in inpatient anorexic adolescents

To evaluate the implications of internalized anger, self-control and experience of mastery for adolescent girls with severe anorexia nervosa (AN).

Internalized and externalized anger, internal and external control, mastery, use of methods for self-control, and severity of anorexic symptoms were measured by self-report questionnaires in inpatient anorexic teenagers (N=26), inpatient female adolescent psychiatric patients (N=24), and a normal female comparison group (N=29).

Internalized anger was significantly higher in both the anorexic and general psychiatric patients as compared to normal controls, but this difference was significant only for the anorexic patients. Anorexic and general psychiatric patients experienced significantly less mastery than normal controls, but again this difference was significant only in the anorexic group. Within the anorexic group, severity of symptoms correlated significantly with internalized anger, low mastery, and external locus of control, and negative significant correlations among control measures and anger were found. Total length of hospitalization correlated positively with internalized anger only for the anorexics.

The findings support the notion that internalized anger and defective experience of self-control are important factors in the psychopathology of adolescent anorexic inpatient females The results may have implications for the clinical management of patients with severe AN.