Emotion regulation skills mediate the effects of shame on eating disorder symptoms in women.

We examined the impact of negative affectivity, chronic shame, and emotion regulation skills on eating disorder symptoms in undergraduate women (N = 154). We hypothesized that self-reported emotion regulation skills would mediate the well-documented relationship between chronic shame and eating disorder symptoms. Results revealed that chronic shame predicted eating disorder symptoms over and above general negative affectivity. Further, difficulties with emotion regulation mediated the relationship between chronic shame and ED symptoms. These findings suggest that chronic shame's role in eating disorder symptoms can be ameliorated by skillful emotion regulation.