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Personality traits associated with eating disorders and obesity in young Argentineans

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Few studies have been conducted on Latin American population to explore how facets of personality, eating disorders, and obesity are related. The main purpose of this study was to explore the personality traits among patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa (n = 23), bulimia nervosa (n = 32), and obesity (n = 16), in comparison to control group (n = 82).

Methods

A total of 153 individuals participated in the study, 125 were female (81.7%) and 28 were male (18.3%). Participants’ ages ranged between 18 and 37 years (mean 24.21, SD 4.84) and they were all native Spanish speakers, living in the city of Córdoba, Argentina. Participants completed the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 and the IPIP-NEO Personality Inventory.

Results

In this study, the subjects diagnosed with anorexia in comparison to control group showed high and significant scores in neuroticism and openness to experience and low scores on agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion. For their part, the subjects diagnosed with bulimia, in comparison to the control group, had higher and significant scores on neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness. Lastly, the patients with obesity in comparison to the control group presented high and significant scores on neuroticism and low and significant scores on agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

Conclusions

The results obtained from this study support previous research devoted to the study of eating disorders and obesity. This situation favors the valid and relevant nature of the study of personality traits as factors that contribute to explaining behavior disorders associated with eating pathologies. This is a preliminary and necessary step for future research to examine the risky combination of personality traits and anorexia, bulimia, and obesity in the local context using a larger and more generalized sample.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas, IIPsi, Unidad Ejecutora CONICET, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Enfermera Gordillo s/n, Córdoba Capital, Argentina

    Sebastian Jesús Garrido & Marcos Cupani

  2. Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Enfermera Gordillo s/n, Córdoba Capital, Argentina

    Paola Noelia Funes & María Emilse Peñaloza Merlo

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  1. Sebastian Jesús Garrido
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  2. Paola Noelia Funes
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  3. María Emilse Peñaloza Merlo
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  4. Marcos Cupani
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Correspondence to Sebastian Jesús Garrido.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

An informed consent was obtained from every participants included in the study.

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This article is part of the topical collection on Personality and eating and weight disorder.

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Garrido, S.J., Funes, P.N., Peñaloza Merlo, M.E. et al. Personality traits associated with eating disorders and obesity in young Argentineans. Eat Weight Disord 23, 571–579 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0546-6

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