Psychosocial Risk Factors

In the last 20 years, the number of studies on risk factors has increased rapidly. In this context, the term “risk factor” has been used excessively and inconsistently, which can be attributed to the lack of clear definitions. The definitions underlying this chapter were developed by H. Kraemer and colleagues and are nowadays widely accepted. The chapter summarizes the main findings of empirical studies on psychosocial risk factors and retrospective correlates from birth to early adulthood for anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and binge eating disorder (BED).