Perfectionism, difficulties in emotion regulation, and gender in dysmorphic concern

Perfectionism and emotion regulation difficulties are widely implicated in the etiology and maintenance of a range of psychopathologies. However, research on the role of these constructs is both inconsistent and limited in the domain of dysmorphic concern and BDD. To address these issues, the thesis firstly examined the associations that perfectionism and emotion dysregulation have with dysmorphic concern over and above generally internalising factors such as depressive symptoms and neuroticism, and secondly explored whether gender interacted with these observed relationships. An online survey was completed by a sample of university students and community participants (N = 233), with results showing that socially prescribed perfectionism was a unique predictor of dysmorphic concern over and above important covariates. However, emotion regulation difficulties were not shown to be uniquely associated with dysmorphic concern. Results also revealed that gender interacted the relationship between dysmorphic concern and socially prescribed perfectionism, and post hoc meditational analyses showed that difficulties in emotion regulation mediated the relationships that both depressive symptoms and neuroticism had with dysmorphic concern. A number of implications are discussed in light of the findings, such as the need to direct attention to the appearance concerns in males.