Evaluative concerns and personal standards perfectionism as predictors of body dissatisfaction in Asian and European American female college students

Examining the effectiveness of cognitive bias modification for perfectionism in exploration of the mediating and moderating effects of body dissatisfaction and self-efficacy

The relationship between perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, and self-efficacy is unclear. This study attempted to distinguish the relationship between different dimensions of perfectionism and to examine how they relate to body dissatisfaction and self-efficacy. Experiment 1 examined the effectiveness of two types of Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation (CBM-I) techniques in the induction of perfectionism. Experiment 2 explored the mediation and moderation effects of perfectionism facets, body dissatisfaction, and self-efficacy in the induction of perfectionism. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four CBM-I conditions and completed self-report measures of trait and state perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, self-efficacy, as well as a behavioural task that assessed perfectionistic behaviours before and after the CBM-I induction. The results indicated no significant differences in perfectionism between the experimental groups and the control groups following the perfectionism induction. Using baseline participant characteristics, body dissatisfaction was found to mediate socially-prescribed perfectionism and self-efficacy. Self-oriented perfectionism moderated the association between body dissatisfaction and self-efficacy. State perfectionism may not be influenced by a single session (30 trials) of CBM-I training. Treatment targeting body dissatisfaction may enhance self-efficacy in socially-prescribed perfectionists. Further, interventions that decrease self-oriented perfectionism may reduce body dissatisfaction while increasing self-efficacy.

Intolerance of uncertainty moderates the relationship between high personal standards but not evaluative concerns perfectionism and eating disorder symptoms cross-sectionally and prospectively

Two dimensions of perfectionism related to eating disorder (ED) symptoms are evaluative concerns and high standards. Evaluative concerns are consistently linked with ED symptoms, whereas there are conflicting results regarding high standards and ED symptoms. High standards are unrelated to ED symptoms in some studies and are linked to higher ED symptoms in others. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) may influence the relation between high standards and ED symptoms; individuals elevated in both IU and high standards may find it distressing to be uncertain about future situations for fear of not living up to high expectations and use ED behaviors to cope with such uncertainty. In the current study (N = 216), we explored whether IU moderates the relationships between high standards and evaluative concerns and ED symptoms, both cross-sectionally and prospectively across two weeks. IU significantly moderated high standards and ED symptoms both cross-sectionally and across time while accounting for baseline ED symptoms, but did not moderate the relationship between evaluative concerns and ED symptoms. Higher standards were associated with greater ED symptoms in individuals higher, but not lower in IU. These findings suggest high standards may only contribute to ED symptoms when individuals are also high in IU.

Ethnic variance between Asian and European American women in a six month prospective model of eating disorder and social anxiety symptom comorbidity

Eating disorders and social anxiety are highly comorbid. Understanding this comorbidity may improve treatment outcomes, as social anxiety can impair the ability to benefit from eating disorder treatment. The primary model of social anxiety and eating disorder comorbidity includes social appearance anxiety, high standards, and maladaptive perfectionism. In the current study, we tested for ethnic invariance between Asians (n = 82) and European Americans (n = 182) in a cross-sectional and prospective comorbidity model of social anxiety and eating disorder symptoms. Differences were found across ethnicity in eating disorder and social anxiety symptom comorbidity. Maladaptive perfectionism predicted social anxiety and eating disorder symptoms in European Americans, whereas social appearance anxiety predicted social anxiety and eating disorder symptoms in Asians. Our findings suggest that interventions for social anxiety and eating disorders in Asian populations may be improved by assessing and targeting social appearance anxiety, while maladaptive perfectionism should be targeted among European Americans.