How can we further explore the link between self-criticism and self-compassion, and disordered eating? Commentary on Paranjothy and Wade's (2024).

ABSTRACT

Paranjothy and Wade's (2024, A meta-analysis of disordered eating and its association with self-criticism and self-compassion. International Journal of Eating Disorders. https//doi.org/10.1002/eat.24166) systematic review and meta-analysis of disordered eating and its association with self-criticism and self-compassion provides a valuable synthesis of 135 studies. They found that greater levels of self-criticism and increased disordered eating were associated with lower levels of self-compassion. These findings highlight the importance of further investigating the complex relationship between these variables to inform effective interventions. This commentary explores what the findings of Paranjothy and Wade (2024) tell us and how we can use their findings to address unresolved problems. I will focus on two primary areas in this commentary (1) the specificity of self-criticism and (2) how we could use existing data to enhance the understanding of the etiology and maintenance of disordered eating in relation to self-criticism and self-compassion to conduct further research. This commentary argues that there is a need for refinement of the self-criticism construct (e.g., through qualitative research) to understand how self-criticism varies across different individuals and cultures, particularly for under-researched populations. I recommend further research using meta-analytic structural equation modeling to test different theoretical models to pin down how self-criticism and self-compassion function as mechanisms of change in disordered eating.