Elsevier

Eating Behaviors

Volume 15, Issue 1, January 2014, Pages 116-119
Eating Behaviors

Effects of perfectionism and exercise on disordered eating in college students

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2013.11.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We examine two dimensions of perfectionism and two aspects of exercise.

  • In females, we observed a complex relationship among the study variables.

  • There was a three-way interaction between perfectionism and cardio exercise.

  • Perhaps dimensions of perfectionism and exercise should be studied separately.

Abstract

Purpose

This study examined two dimensions of perfectionism (Standards and Discrepancy), two aspects of exercise (cardiovascular and strength), and the interaction of these variables as predictors of disordered eating in female and male college students.

Methods

Recruited participants (N = 314; n = 204 women) completed self-report measures of disordered eating (Eating Attitudes Test), perfectionism (Almost Perfect Scale-Revised; Standards and Discrepancy subscales), and exercise (strength and cardiovascular).

Results

Among women, there was a significant three-way interaction between the two dimensions of perfectionism (Standards and Discrepancy) and cardiovascular exercise. Also among women, there was a significant two-way interaction between the Standards dimension and strength exercise and between the Discrepancy dimension and strength exercise. There were no significant main effects or interactions among men.

Conclusions

We found some support for the hypotheses that adaptive perfectionism (higher Standards coupled with lower Discrepancy) is a protective factor for disordered eating and that maladaptive perfectionism (higher Standards coupled with higher Discrepancy) is a risk factor, although, only among women who engaged in lower, but not higher, levels of cardiovascular exercise. The findings also suggest that it may be beneficial to consider dimensions of perfectionism and exercise separately when studying disordered eating.

Introduction

American college students engage in a variety of behaviors to control their weight (American College Health Association, 2012) and recent studies reveal that a non-negligible number of American college students are at risk for disordered eating, with rates of disordered eating among college women placed at 10.9% (Hoerr, Bokram, Lugo, Bivins, & Keast, 2002), 13.5% (Eisenberg, Nicklett, Roeder, & Kirz, 2011), and 17.1% (Prouty, Protinsky, & Canady, 2002). Less is known about disordered eating in male college students; however, 4.0% (Eisenberg et al., 2011) and 3.6% (Hoerr et al., 2002) of college men have reported disordered eating symptoms. Given the risks associated with disordered eating such as emotional distress and extreme weight control behaviors (Stice, 2002, Striegel-Moore and Bulik, 2007, Thompson, 2004), and the risk of developing a clinical eating disorder (Lowe et al., 1996), it is important to understand disordered eating in college students in order to develop and implement appropriate prevention and intervention measures.

Perfectionism, a widely recognized factor in the development and maintenance of eating disorders, has been conceptualized as having adaptive and maladaptive dimensions (Slaney, Rice, & Ashby, 2002); however, surprisingly little research has examined the relationship between the adaptive and maladaptive dimensions of perfectionism and disordered eating in college students.

Research has found a link between disordered eating and exercise (Cook et al., 2011, Matheson and Crawford-Wright, 2000, Yates et al., 2001) and, in addition, some studies (Greenleaf et al., 2009, Holm-Denoma et al., 2008), but not others (Hopkinson and Lock, 2004, Kirk et al., 2001, Levitt, 2008) have found evidence of higher levels of disordered eating among athletes than among nonathletes. Clearly, it is important to consider exercise when studying disordered eating (Levitt, 2008, Meyer et al., 2008) and to address both cardiovascular and strength exercises.

Section snippets

Current study

This study explored the roles of two dimensions of perfectionism (Standards and Discrepancy), two types of exercise (cardiovascular and strength exercises), and the interaction of these variables in disordered eating in college students. It was expected that adaptive perfectionism (higher Standards combined with lower Discrepancy) would be associated with lower levels of disordered eating and maladaptive perfectionism (higher Standards combined with lower Discrepancy) would be associated with

Participants

Participants were N = 314 (n = 204 women; 86.6% white; M = 19.95 years [SD = 2.14]) undergraduates at a small liberal arts college. The study was approved by the institutional review board.

Measures

Disordered eating was assessed with the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) (Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982), which includes 26 items assessed on a 6-point Likert scale (0 = always, 5 = never). Scores greater than 20 indicate abnormal eating behavior (Garner, Olmsted, & Polivy, 1983); however, lower cut-off scores

Results

Table 1 presents descriptive statistics, tests of gender effects, and correlations. Women had significantly higher EAT-26 scores than men; in addition, 15.3% of women and 2.7% of men displayed disordered eating (EAT-26 score of 20 or above). Women and men displayed high levels of perfectionism, indicated by average scores above 37 on the Standards subscale (Ashby, Rice, & Kutchins, 2008), but there were no gender differences in Discrepancy or Standards. Men were higher in strength exercise, but

Discussion

We found some support for the hypotheses that adaptive perfectionism (higher Standards coupled with lower Discrepancy) is a protective factor for disordered eating and that maladaptive perfectionism (higher Standards coupled with higher Discrepancy) is a risk factor, although, only among women. This finding is similar to previous findings that maladaptive perfectionists displayed disordered eating and adaptive perfectionists exhibited higher self-esteem and lower body dissatisfaction (Pearson &

Role of funding sources

There were no funding sources for this research.

Contributors

As the first author, Lauren Paulson, PhD. conducted literature searches, provided summaries from previous research, and designed and wrote the protocol for the study. The second author of this article, Patricia C. Rutledge, conducted literature searchers and completed the statistical analysis. Lauren Paulson wrote the first draft of the article and both authors worked on subsequent drafts. Lauren Paulson will be serving as the corresponding and primary author for this manuscript. Both authors

Conflict of interest

There are no actual or potential conflicts of interest with either author of this manuscript.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Liza Cooper for her assistance in this project.

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