Associations of self-repression with disordered eating and symptoms of other psychopathologies for men and women

Abstract

Background: Disordered eating has been found to be associated with self-repression, specifically with selflessness, the tendency to relinquish one’s needs for others’, and concern for appropriateness, an alertness to information about social comparison and tendency to vary one’s behavior in different social situations. This study aimed to examine associations between these self-repression variables and symptoms of general psychopathology for women and men in a community sample. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-six participants (92 men) aged 18-76 (M=29.11+10.10) volunteered to complete measures of ED symptoms (EDE-Q), concern for appropriateness (CFA-CSV and CFA-ATSCI), selflessness (SS), and symptoms of depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (BSI-18 anx) and somatization (BSI-18 som) online. Structural equation models were built to assess pathways between the study variables for men and women separately. Results: A MANOVA 2*7 design showed that women scored significantly higher than men on the SS, EDE-Q and PHQ-9. For men, SS scores were positively and significantly associated only with PHQ-9 scores. CAS-CSV scores were positively associated with PHQ-9, BSI-18 som and BSI-18 anx scores. For women, SS scores were positively and significantly associated with PHQ-9, EDE-Q, BSI-18 som and BSI-18 anx scores. CAS-CSV scores were positively and significantly associated with PHQ-9, BSI-18 anx and BSI-18 som scores but not EDE-Q scores. CAS-ASCI scores were positively and significantly associated only with EDE-Q scores.Conclusions: Self-repression is a much more central path to psychopathology in women than in men. For men, self-suppression seems to play an important role in the development and maintenance of symptoms of internalizing disorders, but not disordered eating. Even for women, it appears that self-repression is not connected specifically with disordered eating, but with symptoms of psychopathology in general. Future research should explore why self-suppression plays such a central role in women’s psychopathology.