Perceived paternal rejection and eating attitudes in female individuals: Examination of the mediator roles of self compassion and self disgust

Perceived paternal rejection is related to whether there is warmth, affection, interest and support in the attitudes one receives from his father, and how the individual evaluates this. Eating attitude, on the other hand, is one of the concepts that has an increasing importance and prevalence day by day and has an impact on human psychology. It is very important to identify and know the risk and protective factors that are effective in the formation of impaired eating attitudes. In the current study, it was aimed to examine the mediating roles of self-compassion and self-disgust separately in the relationship between perceived father acceptance rejection and eating attitude. The sample consisted of 384 female individuals between the ages of 18 and 65 living in different regions of Turkey. For the purposes of the study, the Sociodemographic Information Form, Eating Attitudes Test (YTT – 26) – Short Form, Perceived Parental Rejection of Acceptance Scale – Adult Short Form (Father), Self Compassion Scale – Short Form and Self Disgust Scale – Revised Form were given to the participants. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), independent sample t-test and Pearson correlation analysis. Structural Equation Model was used to test the models created for the mediator roles of the research. When the indirect effects between the variables were examined, it was expected that the increase in perceived paternal rejection significantly predicted the eating attitude through self compassion and self disgust. As a result of the analysis evaluations, it was determined that self compassion did not have a mediating role in the relationship between perceived paternal rejection and eating attitude, but self disgust had a partial mediator role. These findings were interpreted as the increase in perceived paternal rejection lowers the self disgust level and paves the way for the formation of impaired eating attitudes.