Psychological discriminators of subjects at different stages of the eatingdisturbed spectrum

Eating disturbed subjects and dieters completed an interview administered q uestionnaire covering stress, coping, social support, personality and eatin g attitudes followed by structured probes. The two groups of subjects repor ted differences in coping styles, levels of social support and personality traits. Life stress was not found to be significantly different between the two groups. Personality traits made a significant contribution to separati ng the two groups even after adjusting for eating pathology. The "individua l-diffrrence approach." may be more useful in improving our understanding o f the aetiology of disturbed eating behaviour and its treatment. (C) 2001 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.