Abstract

Although bulimic and depressive symptoms are highly comorbid, their reciprocal association remains unclear. The goal of this study was therefore to examine the longitudinal reciprocal relationship between bulimic and depressive symptoms among female college students experiencing subclinical levels of bulimia nervosa. We also incorporated negative affect and emotion dysregulation as common risk factors for both bulimic and depressive symptoms. Participants were 117 female college students who reported relatively high levels of bulimic symptoms during the initial screening. They completed a series of self-report inventories assessing bulimic and depressive symptoms, negative affect, and emotion dysregulation at baseline (T1) and at six-month (T2) and one-year (T3) follow-ups. The results of an autoregressive cross-lagged model indicated that depressive symptoms at T1 and T2 significantly predicted bulimic symptoms at T2 and T3, respectively, controlling for the temporal stability of each symptom, as well as the effects of negative affect and emotion dysregulation. Conversely, bulimic symptoms did not predict future depressive symptoms across time. These findings suggest that depressive symptoms may be a potential target for the early identification and prevention of bulimic symptoms among high-risk females.