Depression and anxiety in individuals with problematic exercise behavior: Associations with self-discrepancies and self-conscious emotions

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the mediator roles of self-conscious emotions (i.e., shame, and guilt) on the relationship between self-discrepancy (i.e., ideal, ought, and undesired) and depression or anxiety among individuals with excessive exercise behavior. The study consisted of 178 participants (91 male and 78 female) with an average age of 32.7 years (between 18-62 years old). The instruments included the demographic form, Exercise Dependence Scale-2, Integrated Self-Discrepancy Index, Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3, and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale. To test the main hypotheses, a series of simple mediation analyses were carried out through PROCESS Macro. The results demonstrated that shame-proneness negatively mediated the relationship between ideal self-discrepancy and depression in individuals with excessive exercise behavior. Moreover, shame-proneness acted as a mediator in the relationship between undesired self-discrepancy and both depression and anxiety. The findings are discussed along with their clinical implications and limitations were considered.