The relationship between personality traits and eating pathology in adolescent girls

This research investigated the relationship between personality and the tendency towards developing eating disorders in adolescent females Personality traits were assessed using the High School Personality Questionnaire (HSPQ) and dysfunctional eating attitudes and behaviours were assessed using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) and the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI). The sample consisted of 244 students from a high school in Johannesburg, South Africa. Significant relationships were found between certain personality traits and eating dysfunction. Reservation, emotional instability, excitability, opportunism, shyness, individualism, proneness to guilt feelings, self-sufficiency and high tension were the personality factors that were significant in relation to eating dysfunction. This thus suggests that personality appears to influence the tendency towards developing eating disorders.