The relation between Bulimic symptoms and the social withdrawal syndrome during early adolescence

•Tested whether social withdrawal promoted Bulimic eating disorder during early adolescence.•One hundred and one early adolescents completed standardized scales twice across a 5-month span.•Trust Beliefs in Others was negatively correlated with Bulimic symptoms and positively correlated with Loneliness.•Changes in Bulimic symptoms were negatively predicted by Trust Beliefs in Others and positively predicted by Loneliness.•Bulimia nervosa is promoted by low trust beliefs and loneliness during early adolescence.

ObjectiveThe short-term longitudinal study tested the hypothesis that there was a prospective relation between the social withdrawal syndrome and Bulimic symptoms during early adolescence.MethodNinety-six adolescents (47 males, mean age = 13 years – 10 months) completed standardized scales assessing Bulimic symptoms, trust beliefs in others and loneliness at Time 1/T1 and again 5 months later at Time 2/T2.ResultsAnalyses showed that: (1) Bulimic symptoms were negatively correlated with trust beliefs, (2) Bulimic symptoms were positively correlated with loneliness, and (3) trust beliefs were negatively correlated with loneliness. The SEM and mediation analyses showed that trust beliefs at T1 were negatively and concurrently associated with Bulimic symptoms at T1 and longitudinally (and negatively) predicted changes in Bulimic symptoms. It was found that loneliness at T1 statistically mediated those concurrent and longitudinal relations.ConclusionThe findings yielded support for the conclusion that the social withdrawal syndrome, as assessed by low trust beliefs and resulting experiences of loneliness, contributes to Bulimia nervosa during early adolescence.