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Perfectionism and eating disorder symptoms in female university students: the central role of perfectionistic self-presentation

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Numerous studies have found perfectionism to show positive relations with eating disorder symptoms, but so far no study has examined whether perfectionistic self-presentation can explain these relations or whether the relations are the same for different eating disorder symptom groups.

Methods

A sample of 393 female university students completed self-report measures of perfectionism (self-oriented perfectionism, socially prescribed perfectionism), perfectionistic self-presentation (perfectionistic self-promotion, nondisplay of imperfection, nondisclosure of imperfection), and three eating disorder symptom groups (dieting, bulimia, oral control). In addition, students reported their weight and height so that their body mass index (BMI) could be computed.

Results

Results of multiple regression analyses controlling for BMI indicated that socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted all three symptom groups, whereas self-oriented perfectionism positively predicted dieting only. Moreover, perfectionistic self-presentation explained the positive relations that perfectionism showed with dieting and oral control, but not with bulimia. Further analyses indicated that all three aspects of perfectionistic self-presentation positively predicted dieting, whereas only nondisclosure of imperfection positively predicted bulimia and oral control. Overall, perfectionistic self-presentation explained 10.4–23.5 % of variance in eating disorder symptoms, whereas perfectionism explained 7.9–12.1 %.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that perfectionistic self-presentation explains why perfectionistic women show higher levels of eating disorder symptoms, particularly dieting. Thus, perfectionistic self-presentation appears to play a central role in the relations of perfectionism and disordered eating and may warrant closer attention in theory, research, and treatment of eating and weight disorders.

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Notes

  1. The model differentiates a third form of perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, which is unrelated to eating disorder symptoms [1] and so was disregarded in the present study.

  2. Because the platform gave participants unlimited time for completing the measures, the median is a better reflection of the average completion time than the mean.

  3. In Step 3, the critical information is how the ΔR² values of Step 3 in Series 2 differ from those in Series 1. (The regression weights in Step 3 are the same in Series 1 and 2.)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NP, UK

    Joachim Stoeber

  2. School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK

    Daniel J. Madigan

  3. Department of Psychology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Lavinia E. Damian

  4. Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Rita Maria Esposito & Caterina Lombardo

Authors
  1. Joachim Stoeber
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  2. Daniel J. Madigan
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  3. Lavinia E. Damian
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  4. Rita Maria Esposito
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  5. Caterina Lombardo
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Correspondence to Joachim Stoeber.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

The study received no external funding. It was approved by the relevant ethics committee and followed the British Psychological Society’s code of ethics and conduct [32].

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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Stoeber, J., Madigan, D.J., Damian, L.E. et al. Perfectionism and eating disorder symptoms in female university students: the central role of perfectionistic self-presentation. Eat Weight Disord 22, 641–648 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-016-0297-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-016-0297-1

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