Self‐Esteem and Repetitive Negative Thinking as Mediators of the Association Between Bullying and Disordered Eating

OBJECTIVE: Eating disorders are associated with marked distress and impairment, including elevated risk for anxiety, depression, and suicidality. Bullying victimization is associated with eating disorder symptoms in late adolescence and young adulthood, when peer relationships and social evaluation are developmentally salient. Cognitive-affective processes, including self-esteem and repetitive negative thinking, may help explain this association; however, less is known about whether these constructs show unique indirect associations when examined simultaneously. METHODS: Self-esteem and repetitive negative thinking were examined as parallel statistical mediators of the association between bullying victimization and eating disorder symptoms in a large community sample of emerging and young adults aged 17-23 years (N = 2132). Participants completed validated self-report measures of bullying victimization, eating disorder symptoms, self-esteem, and repetitive negative thinking. RESULTS: Greater bullying victimization was associated with higher eating disorder symptoms, lower self-esteem, and greater repetitive negative thinking. In the parallel mediation model, both self-esteem and repetitive negative thinking showed significant indirect effects. The direct effect of bullying victimization remained significant, indicating partial mediation. The indirect effect through self-esteem was significantly larger than the indirect effect through repetitive negative thinking. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that self-esteem and repetitive negative thinking are distinct cognitive-affective correlates of the association between bullying victimization and eating disorder symptoms in emerging and young adults. Although the indirect effect through self-esteem was larger, both processes may be clinically relevant. Findings highlight the potential value of assessing bullying-related distress, self-evaluative concerns, and repetitive negative thinking among individuals with elevated eating disorder symptoms.