A Theoretical and Empirical Linkage between Road Accidents and Binge Eating Behaviors in Adolescence

This study aimed at identifying specific clusters of maladaptive emotional-behavioral symptoms in adolescent victims of motorbike collisions considering their scores on alexithymia and impulsivity in addition to examining the prevalence of clinical binge eating behaviors (respectively through the Youth Self-Report (YSR), Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), and Binge Eating Scale (BES)). Emotional-behavioral profiles, difficulties in identifying and describing feelings, impulsivity, and binge eating behaviors have been assessed in 159 adolescents addressing emergency departments following motorbike collisions. Our results showed a cluster of adolescents with clinical binge eating behaviors, high rates of motorbike accidents, and high levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, alexithymia, and impulsivity (23.3% of the sample); a second cluster of adolescents with clinical binge eating behaviors, a moderate number of collisions, and moderate levels of emotional and behavioral problems on the above four dimensions (25.8% of the sample); and a third cluster of youth without clinical binge eating behaviors, with a moderate number of accidents, and with low scores on the four dimensions (50.9% of the sample). Adolescents of Cluster 1 showed a higher likelihood to be involved in motorbike collisions than the youth in Clusters 2 and 3 (p < 0.0001). We suggest that adolescents' motor collisions could be associated with their difficulties in emotion regulation and with their impaired psychological profiles, which could also underpin their disordered eating. The identification of specific clusters of psychopathological symptoms among this population could be useful for the construction of prevention and intervention programs aimed at reducing motor collision recidivism and alleviating co-occurring psychopathologies.