Relationship between obsessive personality traits and eating disorders

This study aimed to examine associations between obsessive personality traits (perfectionism, desire for control, and cognitive flexibility) and eating-related symptomatology in a non-clinical sample of young adults. The objective was to explore which subdimensions were most strongly associated with eating attitudes. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 890 students aged 18-25 years, who completed validated self-report measures: the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) (Garner and Garfinkel in Psychol Med 9(2):273-279, 1979), the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS) (Frost et al. in Cognit Ther Res 14(5):449-468, 1990), the Desirability of Control Scale (Burger and Cooper in Motiv Emot 3(4):381-393, 1979), and the Personalised Psychological Flexibility Index (PPFI) (Kashdan et al. in Psychol Assess 32(9):829-850, 2020). Regression analyses were conducted controlling for sex and age. The results indicated statistically significant but modest associations between several subdimensions of perfectionism, cognitive flexibility, desire for control, and eating-related symptomatology. These findings expand the previous evidence on obsessive personality traits in relation to eating behaviours and should be interpreted as exploratory and correlational in nature.Level of evidence: 2 (observational, cross-sectional study).