Evaluating the Unique Associations Between Personality Psychopathology and Heterogeneous Eating Pathology Symptoms

This study examined unique associations between pathological personality facets and heterogeneous eating pathology symptoms (e.g., restriction, purging, binge eating). Participants were 570 community adults (247 women) recruited through MTurk. The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 measured pathological personality facets. Indicators from two eating pathology scales were used to measure latent and dimensional eating pathology symptoms as opposed to categorical diagnostic constructs. Three structural equation models (exploratory, theoretical, and empirical) were tested for each eating pathology symptom. The empirical model was considered the most parsimonious of the three models for all three symptoms. Unique associations were found; higher rigid perfectionism, lower perseveration, and higher deceitfulness were uniquely associated with restriction whereas lower attention seeking and higher perceptual dysregulation were uniquely associated with purging. Higher impulsivity and anxiousness were uniquely associated with binge eating. Researchers are encouraged to examine dimensional and heterogeneous eating pathology symptoms when exploring associations with personality.M.A