Developmental trauma and eating disorders in early childhood

Journal title MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA
Author/s Nicoletta Ragonese, Cettina Crisafi
Publishing Year 2015 Issue 2015/1
Language Italian Pages 24 P. 31-54 File size 112 KB
DOI 10.3280/MAL2015-001003
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Developmental trauma and eating disorders in early childhood. As part of the developmental psychopathology, following an explicative relational-model, eating behaviors are considered an integral part of the development of attachment bond, as well as their quality is directly related to the ability and to the quality of the primary relationship. Clinical research presented here involves as participants 20 mother-child dyads; during the psychological assessment children were administered with the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT, Klagsbrun and Bowlby, 1976) and mothers with the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI, Main & Goldwyn, 1998). The results highlight the association between eating disorders in children and insecure attachment. The analysis of data derived from reports of the AAI and from the assessment suggest to read the distorted relationship with food as a result of the failure of the containment capacity and regulation of negative emotional states directly related to traumatic experiences.

Keywords: Insecure attacchment, eating disorders, developmental trauma, depression

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Nicoletta Ragonese, Cettina Crisafi, Trauma evolutivo e disturbo del comportamento alimentare nella prima infanzia in "MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA" 1/2015, pp 31-54, DOI: 10.3280/MAL2015-001003