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Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms and Body Checking in Women and Men

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Abstract

The present study examined the association between obsessive–compulsive symptoms and body checking behavior in a non-clinical sample of women and men. We also examined whether perfectionism and negative affect would account for a significant proportion of the variance in that association. Participants (n = 303; 45% women) completed measures of obsessive–compulsive symptoms, perfectionism, negative affect, body checking, and body dissatisfaction. Obsessive–compulsive symptoms were significantly correlated with body checking even after controlling for perfectionism. Path analyses showed that negative affect fully mediated the relation between obsessive–compulsive symptoms and body checking in women, but only partially mediated the relation in men. Finally, body checking was positively associated with body dissatisfaction, even when controlling for all other variables. Our findings highlight the importance of examining perfectionism and negative affect when considering the association between obsessive–compulsive symptoms and body image concerns, and also suggest an important role for body checking in these associations.

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Notes

  1. Due to an administrative error, an unlabelled seventh response option was included for the EDI-BD. Only a small number of participants selected this response option for any item (fewer than 3% of responses across all items), and a response of 7 was therefore recoded as a response of 6 (Always). This recoded variable was correlated .998 with the scale using raw scores, and the results were identical when either version of the measure was used.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Lenny R. Vartanian & Jessica R. Grisham

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  1. Lenny R. Vartanian
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  2. Jessica R. Grisham
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Correspondence to Lenny R. Vartanian.

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Vartanian, L.R., Grisham, J.R. Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms and Body Checking in Women and Men. Cogn Ther Res 36, 367–374 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-011-9356-0

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