Core Beliefs and the Presence or Absence of Eating Disorder Symptoms and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent Girls Introduction The precise nature of the relationship between core or negative self-beliefs and depressive and eating disorder symptoms is not well understood. A study of patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) and patients with major depression showed that the two groups have similar high levels of negative self-beliefs (Cooper & Hunt, 1998). Similarly, a study of severely depressed patients and moderately to severely depressed bulimics found equivalent levels of core beliefs in the two groups (Waller, Shah, Ohanian, & Elliott, 2001). However, using discrimi- nant function analysis, Waller et al. also found that the groups did differ in the content of their beliefs. Bulimic groups with and without depression and the depressed group both had high levels of social isolation and defectiveness/shame beliefs, but, unlike the other groups, bulimics had higher levels of failure beliefs. These findings are an important first step in understanding whether and which core beliefs are linked specifically to eating disorders and which are more typical of depression. The Waller et al. patient groups were small and the findings need replicating in a different and larger sample. Their measure of core beliefs, the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ; Young, 1994), was not designed specifically for eating disorders and is also very lengthy, even in its shortened form (Young, 1998). Patients with BN and no depressive symptoms are relatively uncommon (the Waller et al. study included only 7 women in this group). We therefore designed an analogue study using adolescent girls recruited from the community. It allowed careful matching of groups with and without eating disor- der and depressive symptoms. This is an important methodological advance on the Waller et al. study. In that study, it is not clear how well the bulimic and depressed groups, or indeed how well the con- trol group, differed from the other groups in eating disorder symptoms. The study also employed a Myra J. Cooper, DPhil Kathryn S. Rose, D Clin Psych Hannah Turner, D Clin Psych ABSTRACT Objective: Core beliefs specific to eat- ing disorder and depressive symptoms were investigated in four groups of ado- lescent girls well matched on these symptoms. Method: A total of 272 girls were included and two measures of core beliefs were compared. The measures were the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) and the Negative Self-Beliefs sub- scale of the Eating Disorder Belief Ques- tionnaire (EDBQ). Results: One-way analyses of variance found that both measures distinguished a ‘‘healthy’’ group and a group high on depressed symptoms, but not one high on eating disorder symptoms. Both measures also distinguished the unhealthy group from a high eating dis- order symptom group, but only the EDBQ subscale distinguished this group from the group high on depressive symptoms. Discriminant function analy- sis indicated that both measures identi- fied beliefs specific to depression but only the EDBQ subscale was able to identify beliefs specific to eating disor- der symptoms. These beliefs were I’m stupid and I’m ugly. Discussion: In an analogue population at least, the EDBQ negative self-beliefs subscale may be a more sensitive mea- sure of eating disorder related core beliefs than the YSQ. The practical diffi- culties of replicating the current study in a clinical population are discussed, and a next step is proposed for future research on this topic. ª 2005 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Keywords: core beliefs; depressive symptoms; eating disorder symptoms; Young Schema Questionnaire; Eating Disorder Belief Questionnaire (Int J Eat Disord 2005; 38:60–64) Accepted 12 July 2004 Isis Education Centre, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom *Correspondence to: Myra J. Cooper, DPhil, Isis Education Centre, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX. E-mail: myra.cooper@hmc.ox.ac.uk Published online 21 June 2005 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/eat.20157 ª 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 60 Int J Eat Disord 38:1 60–64 2005 REGULAR ARTICLE