ABSTRACT
Objective:
To verify the relationship between self-compassion and food addiction in women with disordered eating behavior.
Methods:
Women from a support group completed the binge eating scale, cognitive restraint, self-compassion, modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0), and Hay's questionnaire for compensatory practices. The prevalence of “food addiction” and symptoms, according to YFAS, was identified. To be included, participants should achieve binge eating scores, and for analysis, they were divided according to the presence of compensatory practices. The group was analyzed using Pearson's correlation tests between variables of interest, and the bulimic and compulsive groups were compared with Student's t-test (p < 0.05; JASP software).
Results:
190 women participated in the study. According to YFAS, 95.3% (n = 181) had food addiction, and the scale scores showed a negative correlation with self-compassion and binge eating (p = 0.014 for both). The levels of self-compassion showed a negative correlation with questions #3, #5, #6, #8 and #9 of YFAS (p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
This study brings data to discuss the need to analyze how self-judgment linked to the suffering of the experience of those who show upset eating behavior, affects the scale filling, bringing identification with the notion of addiction since it is culturally accepted.
KEYWORDS
Food addiction; self-compassion; eating disorders; eating behavior; binge eating