Prerna Puri and Alka
University of Rajasthan, Jaipur
Pages:, 75-82
Orthorexia nervosa is a condition in which a person starts thinking excessively only
about eating healthy food. Although eating healthy food is important, being extremely
strict about food items can lead to physical, mental, and social problems. Self
compassion means having a kind and caring attitude towards oneself. This includes
self-care and avoids self-disparagement; means criticizing oneself excessively. This
study was conducted on 200 young adults between the ages of 18 to 29 years. The
sample included in this were selected through purposive sampling. Researchers used
the ‘Test of Orthorexia Nervosa (TON-17) and the ‘Self-Compassion Scale’ by Raes et
al. (2009) to collect data. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics,
Pearson correlation, and regression analysis. The results revealed that self-care had a
negative association with tendencies of orthorexia nervosa. This means that people
who took better care of themselves had lower tendencies of orthorexia nervosa. On the
other hand, self-disparagement had a positive link with tendencies of orthorexia nervosa.
The study also found that self-care and self-disparagement together predict tendencies
of orthorexia nervosa