More than just body weight: the role of body image in psychological and physical functioning.

The current study examined BMI and body image dissatisfaction as predictors of physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQL) and psychosocial functioning in a sample of 414 undergraduate students (mean age=21.5, SD=4.9; mean BMI=23.6, SD=5.2). In men and women, higher BMI was correlated with body image dissatisfaction and physical HRQL, but not with any measures of psychosocial functioning, whereas higher body image dissatisfaction was associated with poorer physical HRQL and psychosocial functioning. Furthermore, body image dissatisfaction was observed to mediate the relationship between BMI and physical HRQL in men and women. Interestingly, in this model, higher BMI predicted increased self-esteem. These findings suggest that body image dissatisfaction may be an important target for health interventions.

[1]  P. Muennig,et al.  I think therefore I am: perceived ideal weight as a determinant of health. , 2008, American journal of public health.

[2]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Rev. ed. , 1989 .

[3]  J. Wardle,et al.  Dietary restraint, body dissatisfaction, and psychological distress: a prospective analysis. , 2005, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[4]  Bryan Rodgers,et al.  Obesity and Impairment in Psychosocial Functioning in Women: The Mediating Role of Eating Disorder Features , 2007, Obesity.

[5]  Chelsea A. Heuer,et al.  The Stigma of Obesity: A Review and Update , 2009, Obesity.

[6]  B. Dolan,et al.  Body Shape Questionnaire: derivation of shortened "alternate forms". , 1993, The International journal of eating disorders.

[7]  S. Murnen.  Gender and body images. , 2011 .

[8]  T. F. Cash,et al.  Body Image - A Handbook of Theory, Research and Clinical Practice Thomas F Cash Body Image - A Handbook of Theory, Research and Clinical Practice and Thomas Pruzinsky Guilford Press 380pp £22 1593850158 1593850158 [Formula: see text]. , 2005, Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987).

[9]  Sheldon Cohen,et al.  Psychological stress and disease. , 2007, JAMA.

[10]  K. Phillips,et al.  Measuring “negative body image”: validation of the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire in a nonclinical population , 2004 .

[11]  J. Thompson,et al.  Body image and obesity in adulthood. , 2005, The Psychiatric clinics of North America.

[12]  C. Markey,et al.  Relations Between Body Image and Dieting Behaviors: An Examination of Gender Differences , 2005 .

[13]  D. Markland.  The mediating role of behavioural regulations in the relationship between perceived body size discrepancies and physical activity among adult women. , 2009 .

[14]  D. Moher,et al.  A comparison of direct vs. self‐report measures for assessing height, weight and body mass index: a systematic review , 2007, Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity.

[15]  C. Sherbourne,et al.  The MOS 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36): III. Tests of data quality, scaling assumptions, and reliability across diverse patient groups. , 1994 .

[16]  C. Sherbourne,et al.  The RAND 36-Item Health Survey 1.0. , 1993, Health economics.

[17]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[18]  J. Henry,et al.  The short-form version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21): construct validity and normative data in a large non-clinical sample. , 2005, The British journal of clinical psychology.

[19]  C. Nishida,et al.  Appropriate body-mass index for Asian populations and its implications for policy and intervention strategies , 2004, The Lancet.

[20]  Haomiao Jia,et al.  The impact of obesity on health-related quality-of-life in the general adult US population. , 2005, Journal of public health.

[21]  Michael J Thun,et al.  Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of U.S. adults. , 2003, The New England journal of medicine.

[22]  Katherine M Flegal,et al.  Prevalence of obesity and trends in the distribution of body mass index among US adults, 1999-2010. , 2012, JAMA.

[23]  P. Costanzo,et al.  Body image partially mediates the relationship between obesity and psychological distress. , 2002, Obesity research.

[24]  M. Taylor,et al.  The development and validation of the body shape questionnaire , 1987 .