Differences in Emotion Regulation Difficulties in Partially Hospitalized Sexual Minority Patients with Eating Disorders

Abstract

Prior research indicates that emotion regulation (ER) difficulties may contribute to or maintain eating disorders (EDs), and that sexual minorities (SM) are at elevated risk for both phenomena. However, limited research has examined the dimensional variability of ER in SM individuals with EDs. Patients from an ED partial hospitalization program (N = 344) completed surveys of ED symptoms and ER difficulties at treatment admission. SM patients with EDs reported greater difficulties in ER compared to non-clinical SM participants from a previous study (ps < .001). Patients with EDs that identified as a SM demonstrated greater difficulties compared heterosexual patients across all ER dimensions (ps < .018); however, the effect sizes were smaller when comparing SM patients to heterosexual patients with EDs. ER difficulties were significantly associated with more severe ED symptoms across all dimensional scores. However, DERS Clarity was the only ER dimension that demonstrated a significant interaction effect with sexual orientation (p = .048), such that difficulties identifying one’s emotions was only significantly associated with ED symptom severity in heterosexual patients (p = .027). Findings help provide additional context regarding ER difficulties in SM patients with EDs.