Perfectionism and eating attitudes in Portuguese university students

OBJECTIVES: The main objective was to explore which are the dimensions of perfectionism that are linked to disordered eating behaviour (EB) in a large non-clinical sample of both genders. METHOD: One thousand one hundred and sixty-three undergraduate students of the University of Coimbra completed the Portuguese versions of the multidimensional perfectionism scale (MPS) and the eating attitudes test (EAT-40). RESULTS: In both genders, the MPS total score was associated with the EAT total score and all EAT dimensions (except for socially prescribed perfectionism in females). Self-oriented perfectionism (SOP) and socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) were associated with EAT total score, diet concerns (DC) and bulimic behaviour (BB) in females while in males the social prescribed perfectionism (SPP) was the useful predictor of EAT total score, BB and social pressure to eat (SPE). CONCLUSION: These results confirm that in general high levels of perfectionism are associated with abnormal EB. This was the case for both genders for SPP but for SOP for females only. The association for other oriented perfectionism (OOP) was greater for males than for females.