Longitudinal Associations Among Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Symptoms, Body Dissatisfaction,...

Although previous research has established bidirectional links between many eating disorder (ED) symptoms and suicidal ideation (SI), no research has examined how symptoms of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) longitudinally relate to SI, which is the current study's aim.

Iranian adolescents completed questionnaires assessing ARFID symptoms, other ED symptoms, and SI across three timepoints (T1 [N = 1243], T2 [n = 856], T3 [n = 639]). We used a latent growth curve model with structured residuals to examine reciprocal associations across time.

Most between-subject associations were significant. Within-person analyses showed body dissatisfaction, cognitive restraint, restriction, and SI predicted increases in each other over time, but ARFID symptoms did not predict other changes. In the ARFID subsample, some associations were nonsignificant; ARFID symptoms still did not predict other symptoms, while other key variables continued to predict each other.

ED symptoms were temporally linked, with SI consistently predicting all ED symptoms, including ARFID. In the ARFID subsample, ARFID symptoms did not predict other ED behaviors but were predicted by prior SI and body dissatisfaction. Findings suggest ED symptoms may help regulate affect in adolescents with SI, warranting further research.