Keele Research Repository

<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>The study examined the social withdrawal syndrome (SWS) hypothesis of bulimia nervosa (BN). According to the hypothe-sis, eating disorders such as BN are associated with a coherent set of social withdrawal cognitions, affect, and behavior.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Participants and procedure</jats:title><jats:p>Eight-eight young female adults completed a standardized measure of bulimic symptoms and measures of social with-drawal (affective withdrawal, trust beliefs in close others, and disclosure). Participants were engaged in a laboratory-based peer interaction which yielded the SWS measure of perceived lack of social connectiveness.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Bulimic symptoms were associated with each measure of social withdrawal. Structural equation modeling analysis con-firmed that those measures contributed to a coherent latent factor which was associated with bulimic symptoms.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The findings supported the social withdrawal syndrome hypothesis of BN and have implications for the detection and treatment of eating disorders.</jats:p></jats:sec>