Body dissatisfaction has become commonplace, however, it has been associated with several detrimental outcomes, including eating disorders, depression, and suicidality. Despite having larger Body Mass Indexes, African American women have reported more satisfaction with their bodies than Caucasian American women. Anxious attachment has been found to relate to body dissatisfaction; however, this study was the first to explore whether this relationship differs across ethnic groups. American societal beliefs about attractiveness and ethnic identity were also explored as potential moderators of the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction. Purposive sampling was used to identify students from colleges with diverse ethnic representation for recruitment. Participants were 233 Caucasian American and 108 African American women recruited from ethnically diverse colleges in the Northeast and Southeast United States. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression and one-way analysis of covariance. Past findings regarding ethnic differences in body dissatisfaction were replicated as were findings regarding ethnic differences in attachment styles and the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction, even after controlling for negative affect. Results of the primary analyses indicated no moderation by ethnicity of the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction. Beliefs about attractiveness was found to moderate this relationship for Caucasian American but not African American women, and there was a trend for the moderation of the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction by ethnic identity for the African American women in this sample. Implications for prevention and therapeutic interventions are discussed.

Body dissatisfaction has become so common that most girls and women will experience it at some point in their lives. Teasing and pressure from family members have been shown to be potent influences in the development of body dissatisfaction. However, most research conducted so far focuses on teasing and pressure from mothers, and neglects siblings altogether. I examined how appearance related teasing and pressure from siblings predicted body dissatisfaction and whether sibling intimacy mediated these relationships. Using survey data from 139 female adolescents, I found that appearance related teasing and pressure from siblings significantly predicted higher levels of body dissatisfaction. I also found significant indirect effects such that sibling teasing and pressure were associated with sibling intimacy, which was associated with body dissatisfaction, although there was no evidence of full mediation. Results indicate that siblings play an important role in the development of body dissatisfaction, and in consequence, eating disorders.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / Anorexia nervosa is a debilitating disorder with dangerous potential health consequences. Body dissatisfaction is an important aetiological aspect of the development and maintenance of Anorexia Nervosa (AN). The purpose of this research study was to ascertain how clinical psychologists assess body dissatisfaction and how they formulate treatment for AN considering body dissatisfaction. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 registered clinical psychologists who specifically work in the area of eating disorders. The information provided by the participants was analysed using thematic analysis. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling. Sampling, data collection and analysis occurred concurrently until saturation was reached after 9 interviews have been conducted. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Senate Research Ethics Committee (Social and Human Sciences) of the university of the Western Cape. Participation was voluntary and could be withdrawn at any time without fear of negative consequence or loss of perceived benefit. Ethics principles were strictly adhered to in the management of data and dissemination of findings. Potential participants received an information sheet detailing what participation entailed, as well as the rights and responsibilities of the student researcher and research participants respectively. An indication was also provided of the recourse participants had in the event of dissatisfaction with or concerns about the study. The research contributed to the knowledge base of how body dissatisfaction is conceptualised and operationalised in treatment planning for patients presenting with AN. Findings revealed that the role of theory is essential as it facilitates an explanatory system, which creates an understanding of body dissatisfaction in AN. Another finding was that the participants had their own subjective operationalisation of body dissatisfaction but feels that it is important to formally operationalise body dissatisfaction in anorexia nervosa. In terms of treatment, the participants believed that a multimodal approach is the most beneficial when treating body dissatisfaction in anorexia nervosa.

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Dietitians are expected to deliver sound and scientifically objective advice to the general public, yet their personal beliefs and behaviors could influence delivery of nutrition care. Increased understanding of the personal attitudes and behaviors of dietitians concerning eating behavior and body image could help improve dietetic practice. Traditional nutrition education emphasizes cognitive eating, i.e., monitoring energy intake and comparing macronutrient intakes to the current acceptable ranges. Intuitive eating, however, promotes the release of cognitive eating in favor of greater attention to physiologic cues, or “body wisdom”. We hypothesized that nutrition students in a traditional curriculum would report eating less intuitively than non-nutrition majors. We surveyed 258 female undergraduate students (96 nutrition majors and 162 non-majors) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Using Mann-Whitney U tests, we assessed the differences between nutrition majors and non-majors in terms of: intuitive eating, as measured by the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2); body mass index (BMI, kg/m2); magnitude of body dissatisfaction (actual weight – ideal weight); and dieting behavior. We also used non-parametric Spearman’s rho correlations and Chi-squared statistics to examine relationships between variables. A two-way between-groups analysis of variance was used to calculate statistical differences in intuitive eating scores between diet behavior and major. Contrary to our working hypothesis, we found that IES-2 scores were significantly higher in majors versus non-majors (p= 0.01) and significantly lower (pnormalor underweight BMI. These observations provide novel information indicating that nutrition undergraduate students, who have the intention of becoming registered dietitians, report that they eat more intuitively and have a lower degree of body dissatisfaction than do undergraduate students not majoring in nutrition. Additional research is needed to address issues related to body dissatisfaction and body weight.

The purpose of the current study was to further our understanding of the subjective experience of middle-age African American women who are HIV+ and on highly active antiretroviral therapy, particularly how self-reported lipodystrophy (LD), levels of body dissatisfaction, body image quality of life, and engagement in disordered eating behaviors are related. Multiple regression, MANOVA, MANCOVA, ANOVA, and chi-square were utilized to test hypotheses. Results revealed that HIV+ and HIV- women did not differ significantly on their levels of body dissatisfaction or drive for thinness. When HIV+ women were examined in more detail a pattern emerged: women who self-reported fat hypertrophy had significantly higher levels of body dissatisfaction, bingeing, but not purging, and dietary restriction and fear of weight gain compared to women who did not self-report LD. About 75% of the sample was overweight or obese, and when BMI was controlled for, these differences persisted for body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors for fat hypertrophy, but not fat atrophy. Overall, the findings indicate that the type of LD, specifically hypertrophy, is more related to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviors, than LD in general. Clinical implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

The negative health consequences of dieting for individuals are well established. Yet little is known about the interpersonal consequences of dieting for romantic couples. This study utilized self-report questionnaire data from undergraduate students (N = 221) and their romantic partners (N = 74) to examine whether dieting is associated with romantic relationship processes. I hypothesized that dieting engagement would indirectly predict worse relationship outcomes. Body dissatisfaction is a core dimension of self-esteem, and people with low self-esteem often project their self-doubts onto their partner. Because dieting is strongly associated with body dissatisfaction, I hypothesized that people who engaged in more extreme dieting may project their negative self-evaluations of their bodies onto their partners, resulting in negative evaluations of their romantic partner’s attractiveness. Moreover, I expected that negative partner evaluations would predict worse relationship outcomes for both partners. As hypothesized, participants who engaged in more dieting (e.g., restricting food intake, feeling guilty after eating, compensatory behaviors) experienced higher body dissatisfaction, which predicted more negative evaluations of their romantic partner’s physical attractiveness. In turn, finding their partner less attractive predicted more negative evaluations of their partner’s worth, increased conflict, and lower commitment to their relationship. Moreover, romantic partners who were rated as less attractive perceived participants’ negative evaluations of their attractiveness, and experienced lower self-esteem. However, participant dieting did not predict relationship outcomes for their romantic partners. Overall, results indicate that dieting is negatively associated with both individual and interpersonal well-being. Findings must be replicated in longitudinal research, but highlight the potential for the negative consequences of dieting to extend beyond the individual to influence close relationship processes. This research also contradicts dominant models of dieting and close relationships that frame dieting in a positive light. / Graduate / 2020-08-15