Relationships with Peers and Eating Disorders

This chapter highlights the contribution of peer relationships to the development and maintenance of eating disorders, an interpersonal factor which has been included in several theoretical models of the illness. These models have been used to inform established treatment approaches and emerging interventions. The first part considers what is known about social functioning in people with eating disorders, with a particular focus on peer problems as predisposing and maintaining factors. This is followed by a description of some potential mechanisms underlying these problems, including impaired social cognition and heightened sensitivity to social rejection, unhelpful emotion regulation, reduced perception of support from others, and comorbidities. The later paragraphs describe treatments that aim to address interpersonal difficulties and emerging interventions which target proposed maintaining mechanisms of these difficulties. The evidence from relevant meta-analyses, systematic reviews of the literature, and empirical studies are cited throughout.