Clinical perfectionism and eating psychopathology in athletes: The role of gender

Clinical perfectionism is considered to be a core psychopathological mechanism involved in the aetiology and maintenance of eating disorders. Recent clinical evidence suggests pathological self-criticism, which underlines clinical perfectionism, exerts a greater influence on eating disordered symptoms than high standards perfectionism. However, little attention has been paid to this line of research within the athletic population. The current study examined the association between various advocated measures of clinical perfectionism and eating psychopathology among athletes, and the moderating effect of gender in such association. A total of 192 competitive level athletes completed self-report measures assessing perfectionism and eating psychopathology. Results revealed self-critical perfectionism as the only independent predictor of athletes’ eating psychopathology. Such relationship was found to be moderated by gender, with increases in self-critical perfectionism resulting in increases in eating psychopathology for female athletes only. The present findings further reinforce self-critical perfectionism as a robust contributor of eating psychopathology.