Perfectionism as a risk factor for psychopathology in a community sample of young women: disorder-specific pathways to disordered eating or obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Abstract

Perfectionism has been suggested as a risk factor relevant to multiple psychological disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and eating disorders (ED). However, it remains unclear how perfectionism contributes to general and specific psychopathology. Disorder-specific processes (e.g. body dissatisfaction, responsibility) between perfectionism and subsequent symptoms may offer an explanation. The current study examined longitudinal associations between perfectionism, body dissatisfaction or responsibility, and symptoms of ED or OCD. A community sample of 499 women (18-30) completed a three-wave online study, assessing perfectionism, ED and OCD symptoms, body dissatisfaction, and responsibility/threat overestimation. Temporal relations between perfectionism and symptoms were analyzed using a structural equation model. Effects of body dissatisfaction and responsibility/threat overestimation were analyzed using multiple hierarchical regressions. Results showed that perfectionism predicted subsequent OCD symptoms, but not ED symptoms. ED symptoms, but not OCD symptoms, predicted subsequent perfectionism. No interaction effects between perfectionism and the disorder-specific processes were found. Instead, body dissatisfaction independently contributed to both ED and OCD symptoms, whereas inflated responsibility/threat overestimation predicted specifically OCD symptoms. To conclude, perfectionism appears to increase the risk of psychological symptoms. However, in this sample this was specific to OCD symptoms. Given ED symptoms predicted later perfectionism, bidirectional effects need to be considered.