Avery J. Hinchcliffe, Catherine M. Sabiston

Perfectionism and body-related self-conscious emotion intolerance are maintaining mechanisms of disordered eating, but their role in dysfunctional exercise (i.e., exercise characterized by compulsive, obsessive, and/or compensatory patterns) remains unclear. Given that dysfunctional exercise is an early onset feature associated with chronicity and relapse of eating disorders, clarifying mechanisms may guide research, interventions, and health care. This project explored associations among perfectionism, body-related self-conscious emotions, and cognitive and behavioural appearance-driven exercise (i.e., dysfunctional). Participants (N=132 post-secondary students; Mage=20.61, SD=2.75; 65.9% women; 40.2% East Asian) completed a baseline survey assessing perfectionism, followed by ten daily diaries assessing intensity and intolerance of body-related self-conscious emotions and the extent to which exercise thoughts and behaviours were driven by appearance. Perfectionism showed a small but significant association with cognitive appearance-driven exercise (r=.21). Negative self-conscious emotions were moderate-strongly associated with both cognitive and behavioural appearance-driven exercise (r=.30-.59). Based on multilevel models, on days when individuals experienced higher-than-average intensity of both negative and positive body-related self-conscious emotions, cognitive appearance-driven exercise increased (b=.07-.17). Behavioural appearance-driven exercise increased on days of low guilt intensity (b=.16) but increased on days of high guilt intolerance (b=.23). Perfectionism did not have a main effect but moderated emotion-exercise relationships, strengthening associations between shame intolerance and cognitive appearance-driven exercise (b=.11-.12) and between envy intolerance and behavioural appearance-driven exercise (b=.36). Findings suggest that body-related self-conscious emotions may trigger dysfunctional exercise, which may serve as an emotion-regulatory function. Perfectionism appears to heighten vulnerability to these processes, highlighting potential targets for theory refinement and intervention.