Self-disgust mediates the associations between shame and symptoms of Bulimia and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Although the experience of shame has been implicated in the development of eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the mechanism that may account for this association remains unclear. The present study examined the extent to which the relationship between shame and symptoms of bulimia and OCD is mediated by self-disgust in a large unselected sample. The results showed that shame proneness was significantly correlated with self-disgust, and both self-disgust and shame proneness were correlated with symptoms of bulimia, OCD, and general anxiety. Tests of mediation revealed that the relationship between shame proneness and symptoms of bulimia and OCD were partially mediated by self-disgust. Furthermore, this mediated effect in relation to bulimia and OCD remained unchanged when general disgust sensitivity and depression were included as nonspecific mediators in the model. In contrast, self-disgust did not uniquely mediate the association between shame and symptoms of general anxiety. These findings suggest that self-disgust uniquely mediates the relationship between shame and symptoms of disorders marked by compensatory behaviors like purging and compulsions. The implications of these findings for conceptualizing self-disgust as a mechanism by which shame may have its effects on some disorders are discussed.