Examining the relationship of eating disorder symptoms and perfectionism in men and women using two assessments of eating pathology

Abstract

Eating disorder (ED) pathology in men is not as well understood or studied as ED pathology in women. One potential reason for this is that most of the traditional assessments used for EDs were developed for and validated with exclusively female samples, meaning that symptoms in men are not as well represented or measured. There are consistent associations between perfectionism and ED symptoms in women, but less is known regarding how these relationships function in men. This study examined whether the relationship of perfectionism to ED symptoms varies by gender using the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the Eating Pathology Symptom Inventory (EPSI). The EPSI has multiple dimensions that may better capture the presentation of ED symptoms in men. Participants were recruited from a large public university and through Amazon MechanicalTurk. Participants completed a survey battery that included the two eating measures and the self-oriented perfectionism scale from the Hewitt and Flett Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. Data were analyzed using independent samples t-tests and structural equation modeling. There were significant positive associations between self-oriented perfectionism and all dimensions measured by the EDE-Q and the EPSI. The models were invariant across gender. Implications for further research were discussed.