Assessing longitudinal relationships among thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and eating disorder symptoms

Résumé

textbfObjective Past work has documented a cross‐sectional relationship between eating disorders (ED) and suicidality, but few studies have examined the directionality of this relationship. Informed by the interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide (IPTS), this study examines the bidirectional, longitudinal relationship between ED symptoms and two determinants of suicide ideation—thwarted belongingness (TB) and perceived burdensomeness (PB). textbfMethod Ninety‐two treatment‐seeking individuals with ED (94.5% White, 95.6% female) completed baseline (T1) measures of ED symptoms along with TB and PB. Of those, 75 (81.5%) completed a follow‐up assessment eight weeks later (T2). textbfResults Separate linear regression models revealed that T1 ED symptoms did not predict T2 TB (b = .03