The Relation of Personality Characteristics to Body Image Disturbances in Juvenile Anorexia Nervosa: A Multivariate Analysis

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Abstract
The relationship between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) factors and 2 separate measures of body image, estimation of body size and subjective report of distorted bodily experiences, was investigated using multivariate analyses in adolescent females with anorexia nervosa. A canonical correlational analysis of these data indicated the presence of 2 orthogonal dimensions defining the relation between personality and body image scores. In the 1st canonical variate, size overestimation and subjective body image distortion were both associated with MMPI scales reflecting somatization, anxiety, and atypical thinking; in the 2nd variate, size overestimation alone was associated with introversion and depression, while subjective body image distortion aligned with somatization and atypical thinking. Different measures of body image disturbance are apparently associated with different personality characteristics. The importance of personality factors in the pathogenesis of body image disturbances in anorexia nervosa was discussed.