Pilot study of a personality-based approach to assessing eating disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder symptom risk in college men and women.

Objective

To conduct a pilot test of the validity of using empirically derived personality types to characterize eating disorder (ED) risk in college students and resolve discrepancies regarding the role of perfectionism and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms.

Participants

Man and woman undergraduate students (N = 169) at a small, private university. Data were collected from February to May 2016 and 2018.

Methods

Participants completed self-report measures of personality (perfectionism, impulsivity, and effortful control) and psychopathology (EDs, OCD).

Results

Our analyses replicated three validated personality types: overcontrolled, undercontrolled, and resilient. Analysis of variances demonstrated perfectionism, ED, and OCD symptoms were significantly elevated in the overcontrolled subtype. There was no interaction by sex.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that personality types may be useful for classifying ED risk and OCD symptoms in college students across sexes. Further study and relevance to prevention and intervention efforts to reduce the burden of EDs on college campuses will be discussed.