Abstract
This study aimed at examining the relationship between perfectionism cognition and dieting behavior and abnormal eating behavior observed in the eating disorder tendency in adolescent females. One hundred and eighty-three female undergraduate and graduate students of a BMI of 24 or lower, meaning a thin or normal figure, filled out the following questionnaires: 1) the Self-Oriented Perfectionism Scale; 2) the Multidimentional Perfectionism Cognitive Inventory (MPCI); 3) the Dieting Behavior Scale (DBS); 4) the Eating Attitude Test-26; and 5) the Overeating, a subscale of the Eating Disorder Inventory. Results showed that the scores on all subscales of the MPCI, namely, Personal Standards (PS), Pursuit of Perfection (PP) and Concern over Mistakes (CM), were correlated with dieting behavior and abnormal eating behavior. Multiple regression analysis revealed that PP affected unhealthy dieting behavior, and that CM influenced abnormal eating behavior. The authors conducted cluster analysis on the DBS scores and found four clusters. The healthy dieting group and unhealthy dieting group scored higher on PS and PP than the average dieting group and no dieting group did. These results suggest that, to prevent eating disorder, it is useful to intervene different perfectionism cognitions considering the dieting pattern and degree of abnormal eating behavior.
