Predicting orthorexia nervosa: The roles of perceived maternal attitude, perfectionism and trait anxiety

The study aimed at exploring the mediating roles of perfectionism and trait anxiety in the relationship between perceived maternal attitudes and orthorexia nervosa. The sample consisted of 411 participants, aged between 25-65 (M=37.64, SD=11.58), residing in Turkey and spending time with their mother in the first years of their lives. The study has a correlational design and the data were collected via an online platform. Sociodemographic Information Form, Teruel Orthorexia Scale (TOS), The Big Three Perfectionism Scale – Short Form (BTPS-SF), The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) – Trait Anxiety Form, Perceived Parenting Attitudes in Childhood Scale – (s-EMBU-C) – Mother Sub-Scale were employed to collect data. First, Mann-Whitney U, Chi Square tests, Kruskal Wallis H, Spearman Correlation Analysis, and then Hayes Process Bootstrap Method Model 4 were conducted to analyze data. The findings indicated that perfectionism and trait anxiety were associated with orthorexia nervosa and perceived maternal attitudes. No significant relationship was found between perceived maternal attitudes and orthorexia nervosa. The results of the mediation analysis have shown that perfectionism has an indirect mediating effect between high level of mothers' rejection and overprotection scores and orthorexia nervosa. Furthermore, trait anxiety has an indirect mediating effect between low level of mothers' emotional warmth and orthorexia nervosa. These results are discussed according to the literature, contributions of the current study and its limitations and recommendations for future research are presented. Keywords: Healthy Eating Obsession, The Big Three Perfectionism, Trait Anxiety, Parental Attitudes, Orthorexia