The investigation of the link between perceived stress, perfectionism, body image perception and steroid hormones in late adolescent females during the menstrual cycle

Abstract

The studies in this thesis aimed to investigate the link between perceived stress, perfectionism, body image perception and steroid hormones in late adolescent females during the menstrual cycle. Literature suggests that body dissatisfaction in women is associated with the etiology of some psychopathologies such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders. These psychopathologies are also highly related with perfectionism. However, there are not enough studies investigating the correlation between perfectionism and body image perception from biological perspective. Therefore, 82 naturally cycling female undergraduates between the ages of 18 to 26 participated in a experimental study in which their steroid hormones (cortisol, estrogen and progesterone) levels were measured. Also, perfectionism, body satisfaction, perceived stress scores and body-related stroop task response times were calculated. The regression analyses showed that adaptive perfectionism and body satisfaction were correlated positively. In addition, moderation analyses indicated that the effects of cortisol which is a stress hormone were moderated by maladaptive perfectionism in the context of body image perception. The findings of the current study provided insights to the importance of biological aspect of body image perception and perfectionism in late adolescence females during the menstrual cycle.