Self-talk as a mediator in the relationship between perfectionism and body image: a study of Polish women with overweight and obesity in the process of losing weight

Abstract

BackgroundA negative body image often stems from high standards in the physical domain and perfectionism, which leads to upsetting self-related experiences. Under these circumstances, self-talk may be a self-regulatory strategy. Therefore, we tested whether the relationship between perfectionism and body image was mediated by different types of self-talk.Participants and procedureParticipants were 214 women with overweight or obesity in the process of losing weight. They completed the Body Attitude Test, the Self-Talk Scale, and the Polish Adaptive and Maladaptive Perfectionism Questionnaire.ResultsWe found two parallel mediators in the analyzed relationship. Maladaptive perfectionism: (a) favored self-critical self-talk, which resulted in a negative body image; (b) decreased the chance of self-reinforcing self-talk, which could have prevented a negative body image from developing. Contrary to our hypothesis, social-assessing self-talk was not a mediator in this relationship.ConclusionsReplication of the result that social-assessing self-talk is not a mediator in the studied relationship may be of great importance for psychological practice. It means that the unfavorable assessment of our body by others will not be a source of our negative body image as long as we do not begin to criticize ourselves and block praise directed at ourselves. Minimizing self-critical self-talk and replacing it with self-reinforcing self-talk may prove to be a promising path in therapeutic work to improve body image.