Do malignant self-regard and depressive personality account for appearance evaluation? Preliminary results

INTRODUCTION: Despite the growing number of studies focusing on the relationship between appearance evaluation and personality dimension, few is known regarding the role of depressive personality and malignant self-regard regarding this topic. Moreover, there is a lack of studies investigating the potential role of both clarity of self-concept and interpersonal exclusion feelings in this relationship. OBJECTIVES: To extend the knowledge regarding the relationships between malignant self-regard, depressive personality and appearance evaluation. METHODS: We administered to a very large sample of adults a battery of self-report questionnaires including the subscale Appearance evaluation of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, the Self Concept Clarity Scale, the Malignant self-regard questionnaire, the Depressive Personality Inventory and the Core Exclusion Schema Questionnaire. RESULTS: We found that depressive personality negatively predicted positive appearance evaluation whereas the inverse pattern of results was obtained in relation to malignant self-regard. Moreover, we found that both poor self-concept clarity and feelings of exclusion mediate the relationship between malignant self-regard and positive appearance evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: Depressive personality and Malignant self-regard appear to be promising construct to investigate in the field of eating disorders. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.