Parental rearing behaviours and eating disorders: the moderating role of core beliefs

Core beliefs have been shown to mediate between eating psychopathology and dysfunctional parent-daughter interactions. However, the possible moderating role of core beliefs has been neglected. This study aimed to explore the hypothesis that core beliefs serve as moderator variables in the relationship between recalled parental rearing behaviours and eating psychopathology.

Sixty-six women with a current eating disorder completed self-report measures of parental rearing behaviours, core beliefs, and eating psychopathology.

Three core beliefs were found to moderate the relationship between paternal rejection and aspects of eating psychopathology. The predictive validity of paternal rejection on aspects of eating symptomatology was found to decrease as dysfunctional core beliefs increased.

When levels of social isolation, vulnerability to harm, and self-sacrifice core beliefs were high, recalled parental relationships were no longer relevant to current eating psychopathology. The findings provide further evidence that core beliefs are important factors in eating disorder psychopathology and may be clinically useful in identifying targets for treatment.