About CONNECTEDNESS
CONNECTEDNESS
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Hello!
We are a group of eating disorder researchers from Imperial College studying the importance of social connectedness in adolescents and young people by conducting a series of separate studies to explore the importance of social connection and the barriers to social connection.
We created this website for two purposes:
- to share information about our research which aims to understand the role social issues play in eating disorders frequently seen in adolescents and emerging adults (anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa)
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- to canvas the views of the general public and people with lived experience (including patients, carers, and family members)
Thank you for visiting our site.
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What is the CONNECTED project - An overview
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Eating disorders affect over 13% of adolescents,
Social behaviours and the quality of adolescent relationships predict the development of disordered eating and eating disorders, and their course and outcome. We know that the more successful an individual is in social situations the less likely they are to eating disorder symptoms.
Adolescents often present at eating disorders clinics with a range of problems with social behaviour that can appear autistic-like in nature. Some research suggests that up to 37% of adults with anorexia nervosa—the most common diagnosis in eating disorders services—also have autism spectrum disorder or autism spectrum disorder traits.
Estimates for the presence of autism spectrum disorder and eating disorders in adolescent populations are lower, however. This might be because autism spectrum disorder traits are accentuated by age and by prolonged illness. Or it could be that social communication deficits are difficult to recognise during adolescent development because social behaviours are still developing during puberty. For some, social difficulties are manifestations of potentially treatable problems, such as social anxiety, or fears of rejection, or interpersonal difficulties arising from bullying. For others, social difficulties reflect ingrained social communication difficulties that have only become manifest because of the complex social demands of adolescence. Peers surpass parents during adolescence as the primary source of social support and having good friends is a known protective buffer reducing the likelihood of mental health issues developing. and social anxiety interferes with healthy peer relations, which are known to have a protective effect against mental ill health.
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Adolescence, which is characterised by changes in brain structure, plasticity, and function, has gained traction in the scientific literature as a sensitive developmental period during which mental health interventions may have particular success. The ontogenetic transition of adolescence is a critical window for changes in social cognition and stress susceptibility, particularly social stress. Social brain networks (especially medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior superior temporal sulcus) change during adolescence, resulting in heightened self-consciousness, increased peer-directed social interactions and complexity of peer relationships. The early adolescent period is distinct, particularly in terms of social stress and maturation of abstract reasoning.
This project sets out to address that shortcoming in current knowledge by the categorisation of social deficits and linkage of these to outcomes.  This is a key piece of research that has not yet been carried out, and relates, for the first time, the broad range of autism-spectrum disorder symptoms to eating disorder symptoms.