The relationship between childhood trauma and perfectionism, orthorectic symptoms and eating attitudes

Objective: The purpose of this research was to analyze the relationship between childhood traumas and perfectionism, orthorectic symptoms and eating attitudes in adulthood.Methods: This study was conducted via www.docs.google.com and the sample consisted a total of 380 adults (180 females and 200 males), with no psychiatric disorder. All participants were applied a Sociodemographic and Other Data Form, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS), ORTO-11, and the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT). The results showed non-normal distributions for CTQ and EAT scores and normal distributions for FMPS and ORTO-11 scores. The mean age of the sample is 25.82 ± 7.31, with a range of 18-57.Results: The majority of the sample consisted of individuals, who were single (87.9%), with an educational level of university and above (87.1%), and with a moderate socioeconomic status (63.9%). The results revealed a positive and significant relationship between ORTO-11 and EAT; a negative and significant relationship between ORTO-11 and FMPS; positive and significant relationships between CTQ total scores and FMPS subscales of concern over mistakes, parental criticism and doubts about actions. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, as childhood trauma levels increased, the scores of perfectionism subscales, such as concern over mistakes, parental criticism and doubts about actions increased, as well. No significant relationship was observed between childhood trauma and orthorexia nervosa levels. In our sample, as orthorexia nervosa levels increased, the levels of disordered eating attitudes increased whereas perfectionism decreased.Key words: Childhood trauma, perfectionism, orthorexia nervosa, eating attitudes, sociodemographic features