Perfectionism and disordered eating in overweight woman Catarina Peixoto-Plácido a,b, ⁎ ,1 , Maria João Soares a,1 , Ana Telma Pereira a,1 , António Macedo a,1 a Psychological Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal b Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Lisbon, Portugal abstract article info Article history: Received 26 August 2014 Received in revised form 27 January 2015 Accepted 19 March 2015 Available online 28 March 2015 Keywords: Perfectionism Eating behaviors Affect Overweight women Introduction: Perfectionism constitutes a risk factor for the development of eating disorders. In overweight women, knowledge about the nature of this association is scarce. Objectives: To investigate the relationship between perfectionism, eating behaviors and affect in overweight women. Methods: The Portuguese versions of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire/EDEQ, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Questionnaire and the Profile of Mood States were administered to an outpatient sample of 276 women (mean age = 43.85 ± 11.89 years; mean BMI = 32.82 ± 5.43 kg/m 2 ). Results: Correlations between Socially Prescribed Perfectionism/SPP, EDEQ total (T) and its dimensional scores (Weight and Shape Concern and Dissatisfaction/WSCD, Eating Concern/EC, Dietary Restraint/DR) were significant (r N .30; p N .001). Self-Oriented Perfectionism/SOP was significantly correlated with EDEQ-T, WSCD and DR (r = .20). Participants with high (N M + SD) vs. low (b M-SD) SOP and SPP had signifi- cantly higher means in EDEQ-T, WSCD, EC and DR (p b .001). Linear regression showed that SPP was predictor of EDEQ-T and EC (p b .001). Conclusions: SPP and SOP are related to disordered eating in overweight women. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction During the last decades there has been an increasing interest in the topic of perfectionism. Many studies have shown that perfection- ism plays an integral role in the etiology, maintenance and course of a wide range of psychopathologic conditions such as depression, obsessive–compulsive disorder, social phobia, suicidal behavior, eating disorder (ED) (Egan, Wade, & Shafran, 2011; Shafran & Mansell, 2001) and sleep problems (Azevedo et al., 2009; Azevedo et al., 2010; Bos et al., 2013). Perfectionism has been identified as a specific risk factor for the development of ED, defined by the Statistical Manual of Mental Dis- orders (APA, 2012), in large-scale community studies that examined risk factors for patients with bulimia nervosa (BN), anorexia nervosa (AN), and binge eating disorder (BED) (Fairburn, Cooper, Doll, & Welch, 1999; Fairburn et al., 1999). Prospective studies have also shown that perfectionism constitutes a risk factor for the development of disordered eating attitudes (abnormal behaviors associated with eating disorders e.g., restraint eating; emotional eating; night eating; weight, shape, and eating concerns (Quick, Byrd-bredbenner, & Neumark-sztainer, 2013) along a continu- um at the extreme end of which we have eating disorders as AN and BN (Egan et al., 2011; Soares et al., 2009). The early view of perfectionism focused exclusively in the intraper- sonal aspects (ex. Hamachek, 1978), evolved to a multidimensional per- spective encompassing the intrapersonal and interpersonal facets of this trait, and also emphasizing that some of its dimensions can have an negative impact on psychological health (Hewitt & Flett, 1991). In the majority of the reviewed studies (Stoeber & Otto, 2006), the perfectionism dimensions found to be associated with psychopathology were concerns over mistakes and doubts about actions from the Frost- Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS) (Frost et al., 1990) and SPP from the Hewitt & Flett Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (H&F-MPS) (Hewitt & Flett, 1991). However, it is important to note that the distinction between the positive and negative aspects of perfec- tionism is not clear-cut (Broman-Fulks, Hill, & Green, 2008). In non-clinical sample studies, results from our group confirm that high levels of both SPP and SOP are associated with abnormal eating be- haviors (Bento et al., 2010; Macedo et al., 2007; Soares et al., 2009). All these data suggests that perfectionism is a significant predictor of psy- chological maladjustment in the context of these clinical conditions, plays an important role in the maintenance of ED (Fairburn, Cooper, & Shafran, 2003; Macedo et al., 2007) and is a persistent trait even in pe- riods of symptom remission (Macedo et al., 2007) that should be managed. Eating Behaviors 18 (2015) 76–80 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Serviço de Psicologia Médica da Faculdade de Medicina de Coimbra, Rua Larga, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal. Tel.: +351 239857759 (voice); fax: +351 239823170. E-mail address: peixotocatarina@gmail.com (C. Peixoto-Plácido). 1 Address: Serviço de Psicologia Médica, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Coimbra, Rua Larga, 3004-504 Coimbra, Portugal. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2015.03.009 1471-0153/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Eating Behaviors