The Role of Sociocultural Influences on Symptoms of Muscle Dysmorphia and Eating Disorders in Men, and the Mediating Effects of Perfectionism

Abstract

This study examined the mediating role of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism in the relationship between sociocultural influences (i.e., media, peer, and teasing) and symptoms of muscle dysmorphia (MD) and eating disorders (ED). A nonclinical sample of males (N = 158, M_age = 26.94, SD = 5.50) completed measures of perfectionism, MD, body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and bulimia. Susceptibility to appearance-based messages from the media, their peers, and family was also measured. Analyses confirmed the partial mediating role of self-oriented perfectionism only for drive for thinness. In contrast, socially prescribed perfectionism was found to be a partial mediator between all three sociocultural variables and measures of both MD and ED; except for those between peer influence and body dissatisfaction, and teasing and bulimia symptomatology. These two relationships were fully mediated by socially prescribed perfectionism. Results suggest that vulnerability to MD and ED depend on pre-existing perfectionistic attitudes, particularly that of socially prescribed perfectionism.

Keywords:

• adult males, eating disorders, muscle dysmorphia, perfectionism

Notes

¹ As per the recommended scoring guidelines of the EDI-3²⁹ and the MPS,³¹ participants with more than one missing response on any of the EDI-3 subscales and/or more than four missing responses on the MPS were excluded from the current sample.

² Evaluation of assumptions of linearity, homoscedasticity and multicollinearity were found to be satisfactory.