Self-efficacy as a predictor of treatment outcome in an outpatient eating disorder program

ABSTRACT

This prospective pilot study examined the relationship between self-efficacy and treatment outcome in an adult outpatient eating disorder program. Data from 59 eating disorder outpatients were collected, including measures of self-efficacy, eating disorder symptom severity, negative emotions (depression, anxiety, and stress), body mass index, and duration of illness. Hierarchical regression was used to examine the impact of baseline self-efficacy, and early treatment changes in self-efficacy (i.e., baseline to 6 weeks), on end-of-treatment (EoT) eating disorder symptom severity and treatment dropout. Early change in self-efficacy during the course of treatment was found to predict EoT symptom severity when controlling for confounding variables. Furthermore, baseline self-efficacy was found to predict treatment dropout, but not end-of-treatment symptom severity. This is the first study (using a validated scale) to show that self-efficacy, and early changes in self-efficacy, may be an important predictor of treatment outcome for eating disorder outpatients. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Notes

1. A recent review of rapid treatment response defined early response as any time within the first half of treatment (range in the reviewed studies was 4–8 weeks). We used 6 weeks because the maximum time in our treatment program is 32 weeks, which is longer than many of the 20-week treatment studies that use a 4-week definition of early response (Linardon et al., 2016).