Bringing attention to friendship: moderating Effects of Mindfulness on the interpersonal model of disordered eating in adolescents

The interpersonal model offers a compelling account of the explanatory role of depression in the association of poor friendship quality with disordered eating in adolescents. Theoretically, a propensity for mindfulness also may be protective in the face of interpersonal stress, but the buffering influence of mindfulness on poor friendship, depression, and disordered eating has not been evaluated. Secondary data analysis was conducted with N = 90 12-17-year-olds (50% female; 30% Hispanic/70% non-Hispanic), at risk for excess weight gain (body mass index [BMI; kg/m 2 ] M (SD) 1.62 (0.62) z-score). Youth were taking part in the baseline phase of a larger health behaviors study. Adolescents completed psychometrically-sound questionnaires on friendship quality, depression, disordered eating, and mindfulness. Indirect associations of friendship on disordered eating through depression were tested using a product-of-coefficients approach, and mindfulness was tested as a first and second-stage moderator of the indirect association. Models accounted for baseline BMI z-score, age, sex, and ethnicity. Mindfulness was a first-stage moderator (B = -0.02, 95%CI [-0.05, -0.001]) and second-stage moderator (B = -0.04, 95%CI [-0.07, -0.006]) of the indirect association. Only at relatively higher levels of mindfulness, adolescents’ poorer friendship quality related to greater depression symptoms, which, in turn, related to more disordered eating. Results supported mindfulness as a moderator of the associations among friendship quality, depression, and disordered eating in adolescents at risk for excess weight gain. Yet, findings appeared to be more consistent with differential susceptibility theory than the mindfulness stress buffering hypothesis and merit testing with prospective data.