The etiology of anorexia nervosa (AN) remains difficult to understand, and even harder to predict. Identifying possible risk factors is therefore crucial. Recent literature has suggested that...Show moreThe etiology of anorexia nervosa (AN) remains difficult to understand, and even harder to predict. Identifying possible risk factors is therefore crucial. Recent literature has suggested that impaired set-shifting (SS) in the anorexic population might play a role as an endophenotype, meaning it might make individuals more susceptible to developing this disorder. It has been established that SS abilities are impaired in adults with AN, but it is unclear whether this is also the case for younger age groups. In this study we aimed to get a better understanding of the possible SS impairment in adolescents with AN. We examined differences in SS abilities between female adolescents with AN and HC (N=72; AN=45, HC=27), between the ages of 12-21 years old (M=15.83, SD=2.08) using a MANOVA, and looked at the influence of food-related stimuli, activity-related stimuli, and neutral stimuli on SS abilities within both groups through ANCOVAs. We examined whether poor SS abilities are associated with low BMI, poor body image, and restrictive eating behaviors using multiple regression analyses, with age, AN subtype and intelligence level as covariates. We found no significant difference in SS abilities between the participants with AN and healthy controls (p=.20). Participants with AN performed significantly worse on the SS task with activity-related stimuli as compared to the food-related (p=.015) and neutral stimuli (p<.001). HC participants did not show a difference in performance between the three SS tasks (p=.17). We did not find a significant association between SS abilities and low BMI (p=.78), poor body image (p=.233) and restrictive behaviors (p=.197). Based on our findings, poor SS abilities do not seem to be associated with adolescent AN, but more research should be done into this topic to strengthen these results. Future research must additionally focus on finding alternative measures that can be understood as risk factors, and actively seek out new approaches that can be used in the prevention of this disorder.Show less
