Abstract

This study was designed to explore relations of stressful and traumatic events with the onset of inadequate eating practices in adolescents, considering the presence of possible dissociative experiences. Three self-report questionnaires were administred to a Non-Clinical sample recruited in schools (N = 31, age 14-20 years), and to a Clinical Sample (N = 263, age 14-20 years): "Eating Attitude Test" (EAT-40, Garner, Garfinkel, 1979), "Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale" (A-DES, Armstrong et al., 1997), "Stressful and/or traumatic life-events invetory" (Wolfe et al., 1997; Giannantonio, 2005). The hypothesis of relations of dissociative experiences with maladaptive eating behaviors was confirmed particurarly with regards to bulimic symptoms. The subjects with Eating Disorders showed a significantly higher occurence of traumatic relational events it their life.