Readiness to Change in Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa: Understanding Readiness to Change in Acute Phase Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a life-threatening illness that is increasing for teens around the globe, and evidence is mounting that multiple predictors impact readiness to change out of AN. The findings from the enclosed study support this conclusion. In particular, interoceptive awareness deficit, an aspect of the transtheoretical model of change (TTM) maladaptive cognitions level of functioning, was significantly related to readiness to change out of AN; and alone accounted for 25% of the variance in readiness to change. When interoceptive awareness deficit was combined with exercise over 1 hour daily and diagnosis of major depression, these three variables accounted for up to 34% of the variance in teen anorexic readiness to change at treatment outset. The current study provides preliminary evidence that the TTM higher levels of functioning, namely the maladaptive cognitions level and the symptoms level, are the starting points in treatment for motivating change in teens with AN, not the lower levels of family systems conflicts or intrapersonal level of functioning.