Assessing the relevance of the hopelessness theory of depression to women with disordered eating

The aim of this study was to investigate the relevance of the hopelessness theory of depression to women with partial-syndrome eating disorders. Metho d: Three groups of women, one meeting criteria for eating disorders not oth erwise specified (EDNOS), one with major depression, and a control group, c ompleted the Balanced Attributional Style Questionnaire, the Eating Disorde rs Examination Questionnaire, and-the Beck Depression inventory. Results: O nce levels of depression were controlled, all three groups differed signifi cantly with respect to their attributional style for bad events, with the d epressed group showing the greatest tendency to attribute the causes of neg ative life events to internal factors. However, with respect to the attribu tional style for good events, the depressed and control group displayed sim ilar styles of attribution, whereas the EDNOS group showed a significantly more dysfunctional style, being more likely to attribute positive events to external factors. Discussion: These findings are discussed in terms of the ir implications for specific therapeutic interventions with disordered eati ng. (C) 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.