Examining the Relationship Amongst Varieties of Interpersonal Valuing and Mindfulness Processes in Eating Pathology

Despite the rising prevalence rates of eating disorders in today’s society, few effective treatments exist. Recently, acceptance and mindfulness-based processes have begun to receive increasing attention. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a cognitive behavioral treatment that promotes mindfulness-based processes in the context of personal values clarification and engagement. The addition of values to treatment protocols has yielded promising effects in several populations, but investigations of the role of values in eating behaviors are largely nonexistent. This study explored the relationship between valuing in interpersonal domains and aspects of mindfulness in the context of eating disorder symptomatology. Results indicate that both lack of success at living important interpersonal values and pliant valuing predict eating disorder symptoms and that pliant valuing predicts interpersonal problems. However, the relationship between pliance and both disordered eating and interpersonal problems disappears after aspects of mindfulness are added to the model. Implications for the use of ACT in the treatment of eating disorders are discussed.