Stomaching rejection: Self-compassion and self-esteem moderate the impact of daily social rejection on restrictive eating behaviours among college women

Abstract

Objective: The present study examined whether having high self-esteem or a self-compassionate perspective help mitigate the impact of daily social rejection on negative affect and restrictive eating behaviours.

Design: Following a baseline survey assessing self-esteem and self-compassion, 121 college women completed online daily diaries for one week.

Main Outcome Measures: Negative affect and restrictive eating behaviours.

Results: On days when women reported more rejection, they also reported higher restrictive eating behaviours and greater negative affect. Effects were moderated by self-esteem and self-compassion, such that the lower participants were in self-esteem or self-compassion, the stronger the positive relation between rejection and negative affect and restrictive eating. However, only the common humanity/isolation dimension of self-compassion significantly moderated daily effects of rejection when controlling for self-esteem. Mediated moderation results reveal different mechanisms by which self-esteem and self-compassion buffer against rejections’ effects on affect and restrictive eating.

Conclusion: Self-compassion and self-esteem influence the complex impact that social rejection has on affect and restrictive eating. More than other dimensions of self-compassion or self-esteem, remembering one’s common humanity can result in a healthier response to social rejection.

Keywords:

• restrictive eating
• social rejection
• self-compassion
• SEM
• daily diary
• college women

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank David MacKinnon for his valuable input on analyses.

Notes

1. Prior analyses not reported herein examined different facets of negative affect – individual components alone such as shame, sadness, etc. – all yielding similar results. This is potentially due to high correlation between affect dimensions. Regardless, preliminary and final analyses, in addition to rejection research that advocates for the impact of rejection a wider range of negative affects, led to the decision for a more global indicator that is both brief and represents different dimensions of negative affect.

2. When self-compassion was entered into the model as a covariate along with BMI, all rejection-affect moderation was no longer present.

3. When self-esteem was entered into the model as a covariate along with BMI, all rejection-affect moderation was no longer present.