Journal
JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 122, Issue 2, Pages 433-444Publisher
AMER PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOC
DOI: 10.1037/a0031250
Keywords
binge eating; emotional eating; impulsivity; negative urgency; negative affect; twin study
Funding
- CIHR [MDR-96630] Funding Source: Medline
- NIMH NIH HHS [R01 MH082054, 1 R01 MH0820-54] Funding Source: Medline
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Negative urgency (i.e., the tendency to engage in rash action in response to negative affect) has emerged as a critical personality trait contributing to individual differences in binge eating. However, studies investigating the extent to which genetic and/or environmental influences underlie the effects of negative urgency on binge eating are lacking. Moreover, it remains unclear whether negative urgency-binge eating associations are simply a result of the well-established role of negative affect in the development/maintenance of binge eating. The current study addresses these gaps by examining phenotypic and etiologic associations between negative urgency, negative affect, and dysregulated eating (i.e., binge eating, emotional eating) in a sample of 222 same-sex female twin pairs from the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Negative urgency was significantly associated with both dysregulated eating symptoms, even after controlling for the effects of negative affect. Genetic factors accounted for the majority (62-77%) of this phenotypic association, although a significant proportion of this genetic covariation was due to genetic influences in common with negative affect. Nonshared environmental factors accounted for a relatively smaller (23-38%) proportion of the association, but these nonshared environmental effects were independent of negative affect. Findings suggest that the presence of emotion-based rash action, combined with high levels of negative affect, may significantly increase genetic risk for dysregulated eating.
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