Networks of guilt, shame, pride, and disordered eating in youths show stability over time

Recent literature suggests that self-conscious emotions (i.e., shame, guilt, and pride) play an important role in increasing the risk for disordered eating behaviors and cognitions. Despite the increasing frequency and intensity of self-conscious emotions and of disordered eating behaviors and cognitions during childhood and adolescence, little is known about how self-conscious emotions are related to disordered eating during this age, or how stable these relations are over time. The present study utilized a network analysis approach to address these gaps. One hundred sixteen youths (ages 9-17) completed daily diaries every evening for 28 days (Nassessments = 3004) reporting their emotions and disordered eating behaviors and cognitions during a population-level stressor. We fitted a network for each of the 4 weeks to investigate the stability of the associations among shame, guilt, pride, and disordered eating across time. Specific self-conscious emotions clustered with different groups of disordered eating: pride was associated with restrictive eating, shame was uniquely associated with weight concerns, and guilt was more associated with binge-eating-related disordered eating. The 4 weekly networks were similar, indicating stability across time. Our findings emphasize the importance of investigating differential interactions among self-conscious emotions with disordered eating behaviors and cognitions to understand eating disorder risk in youth.