The unique effects of angry and depressive rumination on eating-disorder psychopathology and the mediating role of impulsivity

Negative affect and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies are associated with eating-disorder (ED) psychopathology. Depressive rumination is a maladaptive cognitive style associated with the onset, maintenance, and severity of ED psychopathology among both clinical and nonclinical samples. However, although anger is also strongly associated with ED behaviors, the associations between angry rumination and ED psychopathology, as well as mechanisms of the relationships between rumination and ED psychopathology, remain largely unknown. The current study sought to examine the unique influences of trait depressive and angry rumination on ED psychopathology and whether trait negative urgency (i.e., responding rashly to negative affect) mediated these relationships. Study 1 sampled undergraduate students (N = 119) cross-sectionally and longitudinally (five months), and Study 2 sampled patients with eating disorders (N = 85). All participants completed questionnaires assessing angry rumination, depressive rumination, ED psychopathology, and negative urgency. Angry rumination had consistent indirect effects on ED psychopathology via negative urgency among both clinical and nonclinical samples. However, there was mixed support for the influence of depressive rumination: whereas depressive rumination showed total and indirect effects on ED psychopathology in Study 1 cross-sectional analyses, no total or indirect effects emerged in Study 1 longitudinal analyses or in Study 2. Associations between depressive rumination and ED psychopathology may reflect the strong overlap between angry and depressive rumination. Interventions targeting angry rumination and negative urgency may enhance prevention and treatment of disordered eating across eating disorder diagnosis and severity.