Risk and protective factors for eating, weight, and body image problems
1. Body dissatisfaction: What is body dissatisfaction?
Body dissatisfaction is being dissatisfied with or critical of your body. Technically, body dissatisfaction is defined as "negative subjective evaluation of one's physical body (Stice and Shaw, 2002)."
How do people become dissatisfied with their bodies?
- We get many messages from our media telling us how are bodies should look, feel, and even smell. For example, men are often portrayed as tall, young and strong. Women are shown as thin, beautiful, and young.
- Many people, including children, complain about their bodies and spend an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to make their bodies fit the media ideal.
- Among women with binge eating problems, depression, poor self-esteem and childhood teasing about appearance seem to be linked to body image dissatisfaction (Grilo and Masheb, 2005).
- Among men with binge eating problems, depression, low self-esteem and a higher body mass index (higher weight in relation to height) account for almost half of body dissatisfaction (Grilo and Masheb, 2005).
- For early teen girls, risk factors for body dissatisfaction include friends who diet, a higher body mass index, and low self esteem.
- For early teen boys, a higher body mass index and being weight teased about weight seem to be related to body dissatisfaction.
- Among adolescents other factors that can contribute to body dissatisfaction include having peers who desire thinness, exposure to media that promote a thin ideal, depression, negative emotions, and low parental support (Paxton & Heinicke, 2008).
