Type D Personality and Disordered Eating: Examining the Serial Mediating Effects of Social Support and Perceived Stress

Type D personality, characterized by increased levels of both negative affectivity and social inhibition has been consistently associated with poor psychological wellbeing, with perceived stress and diminished social support often posited as imperative mediating pathways. The current study aimed to (1) examine the association between Type D personality and disordered eating symptomology, (2) identify the potential sequential mediating pathways through social support and perceived stress that may underlie the link between Type D personality and disordered eating, and (3) identify if Type D personality has predictive utility in analyses adjusting for Type D subcomponents (negative affect and social inhibition). A sample of 761 participants (Mage = 19.17, SD = 2.68, ages 18-52) completed measures assessing Type D personality (DS14), social support (ISEL), perceived stress (PSS) and symptoms of disordered eating (EDE-QS). Our findings revealed that Type D personality was associated with increased disordered eating symptomology, and this association was serially mediated through diminished social support and greater perceived stress. Here, Type D personality was associated with reduced social support, which in turn, predicted greater levels of perceived stress, leading to increased disordered eating symptoms. However, after adjusting for the main effects of negative affect and social inhibition, the main effects for Type D personality became non-significant. While these findings suggest potential pathways linking Type D personality to disordered eating, the effects are primarily driven by the social inhibition and negative affect subcomponents.