The role of personality traits, sociocultural factors, and body dissatisfaction in anorexia readiness syndrome in women

BACKGROUND: The mass media promote certain standards of physical attractiveness. The media coverage, in interaction with body dissatisfaction and personality traits, may intensify specified behaviors in women, that should help them to obtain an ideal body image, e.g., excessive concentration on body image, weight control, increase in physical activity. The intensification of these behaviors can develop anorexia readiness syndrome (ARS) in women. The paper presents a study on the role of the Five-Factor Model personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and intellect/openness), sociocultural factors (internalization, sociocultural pressure, information seeking), and body dissatisfaction in anorexia readiness syndrome. METHODS: The study involved 1533 Polish women aged 18–36 (M = 22.51, SD = 2.41). The participants completed the online version of the set of questionnaires. The link to the study was shared in social media groups. Personality dimensions were measured with the BFI, sociocultural factors were evaluated by means of the SATAQ-3, the degree of body dissatisfaction was assessed with the BIQ, while ARS was measured using five self-reported items referring to specific behaviors from TIAE. RESULTS: Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed internalization, sociocultural pressure, and body dissatisfaction as significant predictors of ARS. While neuroticism was correlated with ARS, it lost its predictive value after entering body dissatisfaction in the regression model. CONCLUSIONS: The factors associated with ARS were (1) neuroticism among personality traits, (2) internalization and pressure from sociocultural norms among sociocultural attitudes, and (3) body dissatisfaction. The key finding is the absence of statistical significance for neuroticism in predicting ARS after including body dissatisfaction. In future research, the group of men and patients with anorexia nervosa can be included, and the age range can be extended to include younger people. The catalog of potential ARS predictors may be expanded, which can help to explain the role of neuroticism in ARS.