Shyness, sociability, and eating problems in a non-clinical sample of female undergraduates

Previous empirical studies have shown that the personality trait of shyness, either alone or in combination with varying levels of sociability (i.e., a socially-conflicted profile—high shyness with high sociability) to be a reliable predictor of various psychopathologies, including substance abuse and mood disorders. Extending these findings to other forms of dysregulated behaviours, we examined multiple measures of eating problems in relation to self-reported shyness and sociability in a sample of 520 undergraduate females (M = 20.7 years). Analyses revealed a consistent significant main effect for shyness across all measures of disordered eating. These findings extend earlier work on shyness to another form of psychopathology (i.e., eating problems) not previously examined in a non-clinical sample.