A thematic issue of the journal Clinical Psychology and Special Education, “On Eating Disorders in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: Risk and Protective Factors” (No. 2, 2026), has been published.
Tatiana A. Meshkova, Candidate of Science (Psychology), Head of the Department of Differential Psychology and Psychophysiology at Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (MSUPE), served as the guest editor of the special issue.
The thematic section “On Eating Disorders in Children, Adolescents, and Adults: Risk and Protective Factors” brings together five articles by leading and early-career Russian researchers studying eating disorders (EDs).
In her theoretical review, A.V. Shakhova (HSE University) proposed an original five-component model of orthorexia, a pathological fixation on healthy eating that leads to distress when a person is unable to follow all the rules while maintaining an active social life. The framework developed by the author for analyzing restrictions, rituals, psychological dependence, emotional self-regulation, and self-identification in relation to eating behavior may help distinguish orthorexia from an ordinary desire to maintain healthy eating habits.
An article by the thematic issue’s guest editor, T.A. Meshkova, and her colleagues presents a screening questionnaire developed in Russia, the ISP-EDR-15. The instrument enables the early identification of microsocial risk factors for eating disorders in adolescent girls. The scale assessing verbal pressure and weight-related criticism from parents and peers has the greatest predictive value in this regard.
The other contributors to the thematic section (D.E. Shloido, G.L. Isurina, M.V. Fomicheva, T.A. Karavaeva, O.S. Alekseeva, I.E. Rzhanova, S.S. Rashevskaya, and Yu.A. Burdukova) analyzed the interrelationships between different types of eating disorders and psychological problems in adult women, including low self-esteem, body dissatisfaction combined with anxious expectations of rejection because of appearance, depression, guilt, resentment, social withdrawal, dreaminess, and even low gender self-acceptance.
Six articles on other topical issues exploring the bidirectional relationship between illness and social context were published outside the thematic section.
A group of researchers from the Moscow Center for Neurocognitive Research (MEG Center) presented a scientific review of the cumulative effects of previous coronavirus infection, obesity, physical inactivity, chronic stress, excessive use of digital devices, and information overload on the structure of the modern human brain and cognitive functioning. M.V. Baleva and co-authors showed that elevated maternal stress contributes to inconsistent parenting, while living in a large metropolitan area contributes to emotional detachment from the child.
Based on clinical interviews and questionnaires administered to women who had recently given birth in a neonatal pathology department, I.A. Zolotova and T.S. Buzina described the phenomenon of mothers’ subjective representation of their newborn child’s illness and the key stages of its formation.
I.N. Abrosimov and V.M. Yaltonsky empirically demonstrated the role of treatment adherence and a sense of control over the course of one’s illness in maintaining psychological well-being among patients with type 2 diabetes.
A group of authors from the Center for Curative Pedagogics in Moscow (M.M. Liebing et al.) presented data on changes in the academic achievements and personal development of children with autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disabilities over four years of primary school education. Their personal development progressed more slowly than their academic achievements and depended on the availability of systematic psychological and educational support.
Finally, K.A. Fadeev and colleagues from MSUPE developed a new diagnostic tool for assessing children’s speech perception in noise. The test is sensitive to central impairments of phonemic perception, a common cause of children’s learning difficulties in the classroom, and is also suitable for children with developmental delays.