The relationships between body-related emotion intolerance and
restrictive eating as a function of multidimensional perfectionism
Abstract
Objective: Emotion intolerance and perfectionism are two
maintaining mechanisms to eating disorder psychopathology. However, it
is unclear how these mechanisms relate to one another. This study
explored whether perfectionism is a vulnerability factor for facets of
restrictive eating in the context of body-related emotions.
Methods: Female undergraduate students ( N=148)
completed questionnaires assessing baseline levels of self-critical
perfectionism and personal standards perfectionism. Participants then
engaged in an ecological momentary assessment protocol where
body-related emotion intolerance and restrictive eating facets
(cognitive restraint and behavioural restriction) were assessed over 10
consecutive days. Multi-level modeling and simple slopes analysis were
used to explore these moderated relationships. Results: Based
on the analyses, both self-critical and personal standards perfectionism
dimensions interacted with body-related emotion intolerance to predict
increases in restrictive eating facets. Conclusion: These
findings indicate that personal standards perfectionism, though
conceptualized as the less maladaptive dimension of perfectionism,
should not be ignored in eating disorder conceptualizations and
treatments. Recommendations are provided on how to refine treatment
targets to be more attuned with situations that elicit body-related
emotion intolerance.