Maladaptive perfectionism as mediator among psychological control, eating disorders, and exercise dependence symptoms in habitual exerciser

Abstract

Background and aimsThe current study examined the mediating role of maladaptive perfectionism among parental psychological control, eating disorder symptoms, and exercise dependence symptoms by gender in habitual exercisers.MethodsParticipants were 348 Italian exercisers (n = 178 men and n = 170 women; M age = 20.57, SD = 1.13) who completed self-report questionnaires assessing their parental psychological control, maladaptive perfectionism, eating disorder symptoms, and exercise dependence symptoms.ResultsResults of the present study confirmed the mediating role of maladaptive perfectionism for eating disorder and exercise dependence symptoms for the male and female exercisers in the maternal data. In the paternal data, maladaptive perfectionism mediated the relationships between paternal psychological control and eating disorder and exercise dependence symptoms as full mediator for female participants and as partial mediator for male participants.DiscussionFindings of the present study suggest that it may be beneficial to consider dimensions of maladaptive perfectionism and parental psychological control when studying eating disorder and exercise dependence symptoms in habitual exerciser.

Body satisfaction and body weight in under- and healthy-weight adolescents: mediating effects of restrictive dieting, healthy and unhealthy food intake

“…Thus, to fully understand the links between body satisfaction and body weight, both eating behaviors and physical activity should be accounted for in future research. Finally, we did not account for other factors previously found to be significant for the association between body satisfaction and ED symptoms, such as negative affect [45], depressed mood [46], emotion regulation [47], gender differences and personality traits [48], maladaptive perfectionism [49], self-esteem [50] or socio-economic status [51].…”

“Always do your best!”—The relationship between food addiction, exercise dependence, and perfectionism in amateur athletes

“…Perfectionism is defined as a multidimensional personality disposition characterized by a striving for flawlessness and setting exceedingly high standards of performance, accompanied by an overly critical evaluation of one's behavior (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990;Stoeber, 2018), and has been implicated in the etiology of both eating disorders (Bardone-Cone et al, 2007; Forsberg & Lock, 2006) and exercise dependence (Costa et al, 2016;Hall et al, 2009;Hill et al, 2015). For example, perfectionism as an eating disorder trait has previously been shown to be associated with exercise dependence (Lichtenstein, Christiansen, Elklit, Bilenberg, & Støving, 2014).…”

“…More specifically, little is known about possible associations between perfectionism, exercise dependence, and food addiction. Given that the extant literature suggests perfectionism may play a key etiological role in both eating and exercise-related disorders ( Bardone-Cone et al, 2007;Bastiani, Rao, Weltzin, & Kaye, 1995;Costa et al, 2016;Flett & Hewitt, 2005), research is needed to further elucidate such potential relationships, since they may relate to emerging disordered eating patterns such as food addiction.…”

“…The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perfectionism, food addiction, and exercise dependence. It was hypothesized that: (1) food addiction, exercise dependence, and perfectionism will be correlated Costa et al, 2016;Sussman, 2017). It was further hypothesized that: (2) the relationship between perfectionism and food addiction will be mediated by exercise dependence (Cook & Hausenblas, 2008;Cook, Hausenblas, Crosby, Cao, & Wonderlich, 2015;Cook et al, , 2013Gearhardt et al, 2014).…”

“…Little is known about factors that could explain when exercise may develop into exercise dependence and then lead to other related detrimental outcomes, such as disordered eating. Perfectionism is one variable that has been proposed to play a role in individuals struggling with problematic exercising (Costa, Hausenblas, Oliva, Cuzzocrea, & Larcan, 2016;Hall, Hill, Appleton, & Kozub, 2009;Hill, Robson, & Stamp, 2015) and problematic eating (Bardone-Cone et al, 2007;Fors-Parts of the current work are printed in a modified form in the dissertation of the corresponding author, but have never before been published in a journal. Citation of dissertation: Hauck, C. (2018).…”