Adolescents’ Subjective Appraisals: Relationships with Body Image and Dieting Attempts

Abstract

Background: Current concerns around obesity, physical inactivity, eating disorders and their associated health consequences sustains the need for understanding body image and disordered eating in adolescence. Objectives: The study explored how subjective appraisals of health, familial support, wellbeing and weight are associated with body image and dieting attempts in adolescents. Methods: The study analysed data from a population-representative UK adolescent sample of 3,684 adolescents (aged between 11 and 16) from Understanding Society. Gender-stratified hierarchical and logistic regressions modelled the relationships between the adolescents’ subjective appraisals of self (health, familial support, wellbeing and weight) and their body image and dieting attempts respectively. Results: Subjective appraisal of being overweight was the strongest and most consistent predictor of poorer body image (Bs = 1.17 to 1.19, P Conclusions: These highlight the importance of incorporating education components addressing wellbeing and family support into current adolescent public health programmes looking to mitigate risks of developing unhealthy weight control behaviours.

Keywords

• body image
• dieting
• weight loss
• adolescent
• subjective appraisals
• wellbeing