Pilot study of a personality-based approach to assessing eating disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptom risk in college men and women.
Objective: To conduct a pilot test of the validity of using empirically derived personality types to characterize eating disorder (ED) risk in college students and resolve discrepancies regarding the role of perfectionism and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms.Participants: Man and woman undergraduate students (N = 169) at a small, private university. Data were collected from February to May 2016 and 2018. Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of personality (perfectionism, impulsivity, and effortful control) and psychopathology (EDs, OCD). Results: Our analyses replicated three validated personality types: overcontrolled, undercontrolled, and resilient. Analysis of variances demonstrated perfectionism, ED, and OCD symptoms were significantly elevated in the overcontrolled subtype. There was no interaction by sex. Conclusions: These findings suggest that personality types may be useful for classifying ED risk and OCD symptoms in college students across sexes. Further study and relevance to prevention and intervention efforts to reduce the burden of EDs on college campuses will be discussed.
['Hellberg|Samantha N|SN|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0302-2382', 'Ladis|Ilana E|IE|', 'Shepherd|Caitlin B|CB|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders D005260:Female D006801:Humans D007175:Impulsive Behavior D008297:Male D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder D000072639:Perfectionism D010551:Personality D010865:Pilot Projects D018570:Risk Assessment D057566:Self Report D013334:Students D014481:United States D014495:Universities D055815:Young Adult
eating disorders obsessive compulsive disorder personality Clinical medicine gender mental health