title: Seeking a perfect body look: feeding the pathogenic impact of shame?
abstract: Shame feelings often lead individuals to adopt compensatory mechanisms, such as the minimization of the public display or disclosure of mistakes and the active promotion of perfect qualities, conceptualized as perfectionistic self-presentation. Although perfectionism is considered a central characteristic of disordered eating, the investigation on the specific domain of body image-related perfectionistic self-presentation and on its relationship with psychopathology is still scarce. The main aim of the present study was exploring the moderator effect of body image-related perfectionistic self-presentation on the associations of shame with depressive symptomatology, and with eating psychopathology, in a sample of 487 women. Results revealed that body image-related perfectionistic self-presentation showed a significant moderator effect on the relationships of external shame with depressive symptomatology, and with eating psychopathology severity, exacerbating shame's impact on these psychopathological indices. These findings appear to offer important clinical and investigational implications, highlighting the maladaptive character of such body image-focused strategies.
authors.affiliation: CINEICC, Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Cognitive - Behavioral Research Center, Universidade de Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, Apartado 6153, 3001-802, Coimbra, Portugal. mjoana.gms@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Joana
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7807-8575
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marta-Simões
authors.affiliation: CINEICC, Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Cognitive - Behavioral Research Center, Universidade de Coimbra, Rua do Colégio Novo, Apartado 6153, 3001-802, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Cláudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferreira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D012752:Shame; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body image; Depression; Eating disorders; Perfectionistic self-presentation; Shame