Birth order, perfectionism and body dissatisfaction among female college students

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between birth order, perfectionism and body dissatisfaction. The sample was comprised of 139 adult female undergraduate students. As hypothesized, firstborns had significantly higher scores than laterborns and only children on the Frost et al. (1990) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. It was also hypothesized that firstborns would have higher levels of body dissatisfaction than laterborns. This hypothesis was not supported. Further analysis revealed that birth order differences in perfectionism and body dissatisfaction only occurred in Caucasian women. There were also differences in the associations between birth order, perfectionism and body dissatisfaction based on the type of family a participant was raised in.