Addiction to binge eating among women in psychologically abusive relationships: The moderating role of defense mechanisms

In the present study, we examined the contribution of personal resources, self-differentiation and mature emotional defense mechanisms to binge eating among women suffering from psychological abuse in their intimate relations. Three hundred and eighty Israeli women, 32% of whom were exposed to psychological abuse filled out quantitative questionnaires. Our results indicated that the higher the level of self-differentiation and the more mature the defense mechanisms, the less addictive is the woman. The defense mechanisms and their maturity classification moderating the correlation between the stress of psychological abuse and addictive binge eating. We discuss the contribution to the literature on psychological defense mechanisms.