The eating disorders continuum, self-esteem, and perfectionism

Among 261 undergraduate women, increased severity of eating disorders along a continuum was associated with decreased self-esteem, increased perfectionism, and increased scores on 7 subscales of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2. Women with eating disorders differed from both symptomatic women and asymptomatic women on all variables, whereas symptomatic women differed from asymptomatic women only on self-esteem, perfectionism, ineffectiveness, body dissatisfaction, and interoceptive awareness. Discriminant analysis correctly classified 45.2% of the women with eating disorders and 59% of the overall sample.