Relationships between dimensions of perfectionism and exercise behavior among college students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which dimensions of perfectionism were characteristic of college age adults (N=186 undergraduate college students from a university in the southeastern U.S.) who engaged in aerobic and strength exercise. Participants completed one inventory, the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS; Frost et al., 1990), and additional questions regarding their maintenance of an exercise regimen. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to determine the adequacy of the factor structure of the MPS model compared to factor structures proposed by Stöber (1998), Purdon, Antony, and Swinson (1999) and Cox, Enns, and Clara (2002). Results of the analyses indicate that the Brief MPS, a refined perfectionism scale offered by Cox et al. (2002) utilizing only 22 of the original 35 items on the MPS, provided the best overall structural fit to this population. Moreover, the maintenance of a regular exercise regimen was found to have a significant but small positive relationship with the Organization subscale of the Brief MPS, which, in turn, had a significant positive relationship with the Personal Standards subscale. Taken together, the results of this study provide evidence for the reliability of the factor structure of the MPS and its derivatives as applied to this exercise population. The results also suggest that an individual's need and desire for organization may predict or explain exercise behavior to some small degree, lending credence to the tendency of exercisers to plan and properly execute their exercise routine

Key Words:

• perfectionism
• exercise