P02-288 - The relation of alexithymia, depression and obsessive-compulsive personality to eating disorder tendency in Japanese female adolescents

Objectives This study examined how alexithymia subscales, depression and obsessive-compulsive personality(OCP) relate to eating disorder tendency (EDT) in non-clinical Japanese female adolescents. Methods A self-report questionnaire survey was conducted on 393 Japanese female adolescents (273 undergraduates and 120 college students, mean age= 19.9yrs, SD =1.4). Results A stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted, indicating that “difficulty in identifying feelings”(DIF) ( β =.17, p β =−.15, p β =.30, p β =.14, p Conclusions First, prevention and therapy of eating disorder should focus on depression, difficulty in identifying feelings, and obsessive-compulsive personality. Second, one aspect of discontinuity between clinical and non-clinical females with high risk of eating disorder was implied: Non-clinical females with high risk of eating disorder may tend to describe at least superficial feelings frequently, if not deep or real feelings with introspection. Further, the possibility of describing may work as a preventive factor for non-clinical females with high risk of eating disorder against suffering from clinical eating disorder. Table 1: Results of stepwise multiple regression analysis predicting EDT β Depression ,30 *** OCP ,14 * DIF ,17 ** DDF −15 ** R 2 ,17 *** * p ** p *** p