Maladaptive Emotion Regulation in Eating Disorders: An Investigation into the Role of Rumination

Eating disorders are a complex and unique classification within both the literature and clinical practice, with a variety of symptom presentations including physical and mental ill-heath. It has been consistently demonstrated that those with an eating disorder often experience poor ability to manage and regulate their own emotions, in particular when experiencing distress or discomfort. Emotion Regulation has been understood as one?s ability to engage, process and appropriately respond to the external environment and psychological relevant situations (Gross, 1998). Gratz and Roemer (2004) provided an important model of emotional dysregulation, through a multidimensional approach to understanding a range of maladaptive responses seen across psychopathologies. This thesis adopts the Gratz and Roemer model of emotion dysregulation, as it has been applied within eating disorder research and is based upon a clinically informed framework, enabling greater application within practice.