The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating effect of shape and weight overvaluation and conditional goal-setting on the relationship between perfectionism and eating pathology among women in the general community. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that the full mediation model previously established with a clinical sample (Watson et al., 2011), generalized to the present community sample (n = 202). The indirect effect of self-oriented perfectionism on eating disorder pathology was .25 (p < .001) via shape and weight overvaluation, and .10 (p < .01) via conditional goal-setting, supporting the hypothesis that self-oriented perfectionism increased eating disorder psychopathology via each mechanism. Shape and weight overvaluation was the stronger mediator. The findings provide evidence to support existing cognitive-behavioral formulations of eating pathology and clinical perfectionism, and have implications for the prevention of eating pathology.
Perfectionism, defined as the setting of excessively high standards for performance accompanied by overly critical self-evaluation (Frost, Marten, Lahart, & Rosenblate, 1990), has a robust link to eating pathology (Bardone-Cone et al., 2007 and Egan et al., 2011). Despite intermediary mechanisms potentially serving as conduits between perfectionism and eating pathology, few studies have examined mediation models in clinical or community populations (Bardone-Cone et al., 2007).
Watson, Raykos, Street, Fursland, and Nathan (2011) investigated the mediators of shape and weight overvaluation and conditional goal-setting among women with eating disorders (n = 201). Shape and weight overvaluation occurs when the individual evaluates self-worth largely or almost entirely on body shape and weight, to the exclusion of other domains (e.g., work, hobbies, study, friendships) and is related to but distinct from perfectionism ( Wade and Bulik, 2007 and Watson et al., 2011). Cognitive behavioral theories ( Fairburn et al., 2003, Garner and Bemis, 1985 and Slade, 1982) propose that perfectionism is a proximal risk or etiological factor for the development of shape and weight overvaluation. Conditional goal-setting is a cognitive style informed by broader social cognitive theories and described within conditional goal-setting theory ( Street, 2002). Traditional goal theories propose that individuals arrange personal goals in hierarchies; from concrete, proximal goals at the lower level, to abstract, distal goals – most commonly personal happiness – at the pinnacle. Conditional goal-setting is the belief that a higher order goal is only attainable upon reaching connected lower order goals (“I will only be happy when I get the promotion I want”, “I will only be happy when I get pregnant”). Watson et al. (2011) found that women with eating disorders who exhibited higher conditional goal-setting related to shape and weight (e.g., “I will only be happy if I weigh _ _ pounds”) had more severe eating pathology. Further, shape and weight overvaluation and conditional goal-setting for shape and weight were found to mediate the relation between self-oriented perfectionism and eating pathology.
Based on Watson et al. (2011) findings, we hypothesize that shape and weight overvaluation and conditional goal-setting will mediate the relation between perfectionism and eating pathology in a community sample of adult women.
