Journal of Education and Health Promotion

The mediating role of self‑compassion in the relationship between positive reactivity, negative reactivity, and perfectionism with disordered eating

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Esmaeil Mousavi Asl
. Leila Abdi
. Amirali Moghaddam Sadegh
. Forouzan Behrouzian
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Individuals with disordered eating are at an increased of having one or more
additional risks for comorbid disorders, such as anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, and insomnia.
Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of self‑compassion in the
relationship between positive reactivity, negative reactivity, and perfectionism with disordered eating.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study method was descriptive‑correlational through
structural equation modeling (SEM). The present study population included all students of the
University of Tehran in the city of Tehran in 2018–2019. A total of 302 students were selected
by convenience sampling method and completed questionnaires on eating attitudes test‑8,
self‑compassion scale (short form), eating disorder inventory‑perfectionism scale, and Perth emotional
reactivity scale. The SEM path analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient were conducted to analyze
the obtained data in SPSS‑23 and Lisrel‑8.80.
RESULTS: The finding of the path analysis showed that self‑compassion acts as a mediating  role in
the relationship of disordered eating with positive and negative emotional reactivity and perfectionism.
Only the direct effect coefficient of general positive reactivity on disordered eating was not significant.
CONCLUSION: Based on the results of this study, self‑compassion can serve as a protective factor
against negative emotional reactivity and perfectionism. Therefore, self‑compassion can be considered
in the development of prevention and treatment programs for disordered eating.

Keywords

Disordered eating
emotional reactivity
perfectionism
self‑compassion
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 11, Issue 6
July 2021
Pages 1-6

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