The Mediating Role of Adaptive and Maladaptive Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies on Perfectionism and Symptoms of Binge Eating Disorder in Female College Students

Eating disorders are among the most harmful psychiatric disorders, associated with important medical and psychological illnesses that cause significant personal, family, and social costs. The aim of the present study was to determine the mediating role of adaptive and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies on perfectionism and symptoms of binge eating disorder in female college students. In this respect, a descriptive-correlational study was performed and 214 female college students in Isfahan city were selected through the convenience sampling method and investigated in terms of perfectionism, cognitive emotion regulation, and binge eating. The results of the path analysis indicated that the research model was appropriate. It was also shown that the direct path of the perfectionism variable was not significant to the variable of binge eating disorder symptoms (β = 0.016, T = 0.218), but this variable was able to affect the symptoms of binge eating disorder through the mediating variable of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation (β = 0.166, P = 0.001). Based on the results of the present study, it is suggested to consider the mediating role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation in the relationship between perfectionism and symptoms of binge eating disorder and therapists need to incorporate this component in their therapeutic application.