Competing for perfection: A scoping review evaluating relationships between competitiveness and eating disorders or disordered eating behaviours.

Abstract

Eating disorders (EDs) impact multiple domains in a person's life including interpersonal interactions. Although a considerable amount of literature has evaluated social comparison and ED pathology, less has focussed on the influence of competitiveness on eating behaviours within ED and community samples. To address this, a systematic scoping review was conducted to evaluate current knowledge on this topic. PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews were utilised to identify relevant articles in three databases without limits to date or publication type. A total of 2952 articles were identified. After removing duplicates and books, 1782 articles were evaluated against inclusion criteria, and 91 articles were included. Results were synthesised under six differing conceptualisations of competitiveness: competition in pro-eating disorder communities (n=28), general personality competitiveness (n=20), sexual competition hypothesis (n=18), interpersonal competitiveness with peers (n=17), familial competitiveness (n=8) and competitiveness to avoid inferiority (n=5). Varying conceptualisations of competitiveness were identified within the ED literature, and preliminary evidence suggests competitiveness may be associated with ED pathology in ED and community samples, although results were not uniform. Future research is needed to clarify these relationships and to identify possible clinical implications.