Citation

Peterson CM, Mara CA, Conard LAE, Grossoehme D. Eat. Behav. 2020; 39: 101416.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.eatbeh.2020.101416

PMID

32861052

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This brief report examined the relationship of negative urgency (the tendency to act rashly in response to negative emotional states), (lack of) perseverance, (lack of) premeditation, and sensation seeking in association with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and symptoms of bulimia nervosa (BN) in a sample of treatment-seeking transgender (TG) youth.
METHOD: Eighty-six TG youth with a mean age of 17 (sd = 3.2) agreed to participate in the study. The majority of our sample identified as TG male (n = 60) with 20 participants identifying as TG female and 6 identifying as non-binary. The racial ethnic breakdown of our sample was 8.2% Black, 8.2% Multi-racial, 1.2% Native American, and 82.4% White. Over ¼ of our sample endorsed at least one episode of objective binge eating in the last 28 days and 62% endorsed a history of NSSI.
RESULTS: Negative urgency was significantly associated with the odds of NSSI, objective binge eating, and general eating disorder symptoms. Lack of premeditation was significantly related to the odds of NSSI only. No other factors were significantly associated with NSSI or symptoms of BN.
CONCLUSIONS: Negative urgency appears to be an important personality construct in understanding increased risk for NSSI and BN symptoms in transgender youth.

Language: en

Keywords

Bulimia nervosa (BN); Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI); Transgender youth; UPPS