Investigation of the relationship between Orthorexia Nervosa emotion regulation difficulty and personality characteristics in university students

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is defined as the pathological obsession with healthy eating has become an area of increasing interest in both clinical and research settings. Individuals with a high level of neuroticism from the five-factor personality traits have difficulties managing emotions in a healthy way. Difficulties in identifying and regulating emotions are considered a risk factor for ON. Therefore, the aim of this study is examining the predictive effects of university students' five-factor personality traits and difficulty in emotion regulation on ON levels, determining the mediator role of difficulty in emotion regulation in the relationship between neuroticism personality trait and ON and specifying whether ON levels differ according to body mass index (BMI), following a certain diet (vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.), current or previous eating disorder (ED) and receiving treatment for ED. The sample of the study consists of 203 people (Female=147, Male=56) in the 18-25 age range. Informed Consent Form, Sociodemographic Information Form, Adjective-Based Personality Test (SDKT), Emotion Regulation Difficulty Scale-Short Form (DDSS-16) and ORTO-11 Test (ORTO-11) were administered to the participants, respectively. As a result of the study, neuroticism, agreeableness and extraversion personality traits and difficulty in emotion regulation did not have a predictive effect on ON. On the other hand, conscientiousness and openness to experience personality traits were found to have a negative predictive effect on ON, and it was found that ON levels increased as conscientiousness and openness to experience personality traits increased. It has been determined that difficulty in emotion regulation does not have a mediating role in the relationship between neuroticism and ON. In addition, ON levels did not differ significantly according to BMI, following a certain diet and receiving treatment for current or previous ED; ON levels were found to be statistically significantly higher than the other participants who reported only a current or previous ED.