Eating Disorders (ED) are serious mental health disorders affecting approximately 5-10% of adults (Hudson et al., 2007; Swanson et al., 2011) and have a peak of onset in adolescence between the ages of 15-19 (Micali et al., 2013; Field et al., 2012). The etiology of ED remains poorly understood, though and interplay of genetic and environmental factors is likely to be at play. Research into the clarification of risk factors has been hampered by uncertainties about clear phenotypic distinctions across ED categories, and by a lack of integrative studies using a longitudinal approach to clarify risk for ED. This study aims to focus on how cognitive, emotional and social processes cause ED behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood in interaction with environmental factors from infancy onwards. Cross-sectional studies have identified cognitive, emotional and social difficulties that are associated with ED.

There is cross-sectional evidence that anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with emotional and social communication difficulties and that specific cognitive profiles characterize bulimic type disorders.AN shares common features with anxiety (Silberg & Bulik, 2005; Micali et al, 2011); and a range of social communication deficits, including interpersonal problems and poor emotion recognition, are present in individuals with AN (Tchanturia et al., 2012; Treasure et al., 2012). Bulimic-type ED are cross-sectionally associated with specific cognitive profiles characterized by poor attention (Dobson & Dozois, 2004; Faunce, 2002) and low inhibition (Galimberti, et al., 2012; Rosval et al., 2006).

Most of the studies cited above are cross-sectional and have often focused on one specific area of behavior or cognition. Large genome-wide studies of psychiatric disorders have highlighted genetic similarities across disorders, indicating either poor specificity of genetic markers or poor specificity of categorical classification systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of attention, anxiety and social communication difficulties as well as their biologicla counterparts, genetic data and their interaction with environmental factors to the risk for ED behaviors (restrictive eating, excessive exercise, bingeing, purging at ages 13,14, 16, 18, 24) in a longitudinal developmental fashion.

We propose to use data collected prospectively (and carry out a new wave of data collection) from ALSPAC to investigate the prospective association of anxiety and social communication and AN-type behaviors (restrictive eating and excessive exercise); and cognitive control and attention and BN-type behaviors (bingeing, purging).