The relation of attachment style and perfectionism in women with eating disorder symptomatology

Two variables that have been consistently associated with problematic dieting and eating disorders are insecure attachment cognitions and perfectionism. Attachment cognitions refer to beliefs regarding one's worthiness of affection and support, and beliefs regarding others' availability. Perfectionism is a set of beliefs centered around unreasonably high expectations for oneself, associated with fear of failure if these expectations are not met. As yet, no published study has considered how these two variables might relate in the context of eating disorder symptomatology. The primary goal of this study was to investigate whether perfectionism moderated the relation between insecure attachment cognitions and eating disorder symptoms. Further goals were (a) to examine which types or dimensions of attachment were most associated with problematic eating and dieting behaviors; (b) to examine whether certain attachment styles were differentially associated with particular eating disorder symptomatology; and (c) to further specify the aspects of perfectionism that are most relevant to eating disorder symptomatology.; In this study, 325 college women completed self-report questionnaires on eating, dieting, attachment cognitions, and perfectionism; of the 325, 73 also completed a semistructured interview about eating and dieting history. Participants received partial course credit for their participation. Overall, findings from previous investigations linking both insecure adult attachment style and perfectionism with disordered eating and dieting were confirmed. Although both preoccupied and fearful attachment were similarly related to eating disorder symptomatology, there was some suggestion that the fearful attachment style may be somewhat more important. Results also suggested that the dismissing attachment style was not relevant to eating disorder symptomatology. The hypothesis that different insecure attachment styles would relate differentially to anorexic and bulimic symptomatology was not confirmed, although this may be related to methodological issues. Most of the hypothesized relationships involving perfectionism and eating disorder symptomatology were found. Both adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism were related to eating disorder symptomatology, but maladaptive perfectionism was more strongly related. However, the prediction that perfectionism would be a moderator variable, partially explaining the relation between insecure attachment and eating disorder symptomatology, was not borne out. Limitations of the study and directions for future research were discussed.