The unique associations of self-criticism and shame-proneness to symptoms of disordered eating and depression

This study examined the unique associations of shame-proneness and self-criticism to symptoms of disordered eating and depression among 186 undergraduate students. The study also tested the degree to which self-criticism and shame-proneness accounted for the association between disordered eating and depressive symptoms. Both shame-proneness and self-criticism were significantly related to disordered eating and depressive symptoms. Self-criticism was significantly associated with disordered eating and depressive symptoms, over-and-above shame-proneness, but the reverse was not true. Controlling for shame-proneness, self-criticism also accounted for a significant proportion of the covariance between disordered eating and depressive symptoms, suggesting that self-criticism could account for some of the comorbidity between depression and eating disorders. Findings suggest that self-criticism may have incremental utility above-and-beyond shame-proneness as part of a transdiagnostic underlying cognitive substrate for depression and disordered eating. Implications emerge for future research and clinical practice.