Processos Cognitivos na Anorexia Nervosa: Comparação entre adolescentes e adultas

Abstract

Enrolled in the I-CAN international project, this study aims to evaluate and compare how perseverative thinking (rumination), cognitive flexibility and clinical perfectionism expresses in female adolescents and adult women with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). The main goal was to understand the role of these processes throughout the stages of the disease. Ranging between 14 and 56 years old, 42 participants took part in this study - from those, 16 were placed in the adolescent's group, while the remaining 26 formed the adult one. Both correlation analysis between the variables and multivariate analysis of variance were used to check for potential differences across the two groups. The results showed statistically significant differences in the analysed cognitive processes between the groups. Higher levels of rumination were observed in the adult group compared to the adolescents. For both cognitive flexibility and perfectionism, no statistically significant differences were found across the groups. The correlation analysis revealed that the age was positively associated with rumination for the adolescent's group, whereas for the adult group this pattern was not present. Moreover, among adults, higher levels of rumination were linked with lower cognitive flexibility. These findings suggest that despite being present since adolescence, the expression of these cognitive processes tends to become more stable throughout adulthood. Rumination showed greater variability and developmental sensitivity in the younger group, while showing a more consolidated pattern and associated with reduced cognitive flexibility for the adults. Therefore, these results strengthen the importance of early targeted interventions addressing the cognitive function in AN, to prevent the consolidation of non-adaptive thinking styles. Keywords: perseverative thinking, cognitive flexibility, perfectionism, Anorexia Nervosa