Networks of guilt, shame, pride, and disordered eating in youths show stability over time

Abstract Recent literature suggests that self‐conscious emotions (i.e., shame, guilt, and pride) play an important role in increasing the risk for disordered eating behaviors and cognitions. Despite the increasing frequency and intensity of self‐conscious emotions and of disordered eating behaviors and cognitions during childhood and adolescence, little is known about how self‐conscious emotions are related to disordered eating during this age, or how stable these relations are over time. The present study utilized a network analysis approach to address these gaps. One hundred sixteen youths (ages 9–17) completed daily diaries every evening for 28 days (Nassessments = 3004) reporting their emotions and disordered eating behaviors and cognitions during a population‐level stressor. We fitted a network for each of the 4 weeks to investigate the stability of the associations among shame, guilt, pride, and disordered eating across time. Specific self‐conscious emotions clustered with different groups of disordered eating: pride was associated with restrictive eating, shame was uniquely associated with weight concerns, and guilt was more associated with binge‐eating‐related disordered eating. The 4 weekly networks were similar, indicating stability across time. Our findings emphasize the importance of investigating differential interactions among self‐conscious emotions with disordered eating behaviors and cognitions to understand eating disorder risk in youth.