Obesity, Body Dissatisfaction, and Emotional Well-Being in Early and Late Adolescence: Findings From the Project EAT Study

Abstract

Purpose-We tested the hypothesis that, at two different stages of adolescence, impairment in emotional well-being associated with obesity is mediated by body dissatisfaction.Methods-Self-report measures of body dissatisfaction, emotional well-being (self-esteem, depressive mood), height and weight and socio-demographic information were completed by the same female (n=366) and male (n=440) participants during early (mean age = 12.8 years) and late (17.3 years) adolescence. For each measure and at each time point, the hypothesis of mediation was tested using the methods suggested by Baron & Kenny (1986).Results-The conditions of complete mediation were satisfied in all 6 cases for which an effect of obesity on emotional well-being was observed. That is, in each of these cases, obesity was no longer associated with lower self-esteem or with higher depressive mood after the effects of body dissatisfaction were statistically controlled. Among females, there was no association between obesity and depressive mood at either time point.Conclusions-Impairment in the emotional well-being of overweight adolescents, where this is observed, may be due primarily to the effects of weight-related body dissatisfaction. This appears to be the case for both boys and girls and during both early and late adolescence. The findings are consistent with the view that body dissatisfaction is central to the health and well-being of children and adolescents who are overweight and that distress associated with negative body image may warrant greater attention in the context of obesity prevention and treatment programs. Keywords obesity; body dissatisfaction; emotional well-being; mediation Emotional well-being is a particularly important component of overall health and well-being during childhood and adolescence, in that the chronic medical conditions that often affect physical health in adulthood are comparatively uncommon earlier in life [1]. That being the case, and given the marked increases in the prevalence of obesity observed in many countries in recent years, weight-related impairment in the emotional well-being of children and adolescents has come to assume greater significance in obesity research [2,3].Population-based studies of the association between obesity and emotional well-being have, however, yielded inconsistent findings in both children and adolescents and adults [4,5]. Whereas obesity has been found to be associated with low self-esteem, depressive mood, and similar forms of impairment in some studies [2,6,7], in other studies no association has been observed [3,8,9]. As a consequence, attention has turned to variables that might mediate the association between obesity and emotional well-being; that is, variables that might account for the fact that emotional well-being is impaired in some obese individuals but not others [4,5].One variable that appears to be worthy of further investigation in this regard is body dissatisfaction (BD), a construct that may be defined as a person's subjective dissatisfaction with h...

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“…In many studies that support the findings of this study, low-esteem levels of the people with obesity were low, and as these people gained weight, their self-esteem worsened [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]18].…”

“…In addition to the physical problems such as cardiovascular disorders, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and cancer [5,7] and psychological problems such as anxiety disorder and depression [2,4,5,[7][8][9][10][11], not finding marriage partners due to social bias and problems related to finding a job and education are frequent; these problems affect the duration and quality of life [2,[4][5][6][7][8]11,12]. These problems also worsen the negative feelings of the people with obesity and decrease self-esteem [7][8][9][10][13][14][15].…”

“…Individuals in this positive mood feel themselves precious and worth being appreciated and loved [4,10,12,14]. In many studies conducted with people with obesity, these people had a negative self-perception and lower selfesteem than those who do not suffer from obesity [4,[7][8][9][10][12][13][14]18]. How people perceive themselves is important for their psychological well-being.…”

Insatisfacción corporal y conductas de control del peso en chicas adolescentes con sobrepeso: papel mediador de la ansiedad y la depresión

“…Estos datos estarían en consonancia con los hallazgos de Mond y cols. (35), según los cuales el desajuste en el bienestar emocional de los adolescentes con sobrepeso es debido principalmente a los efectos de la insatisfacción corporal. Cromley y cols.…”

“…Por ello, como señalan Mond y cols. (35), para este subgrupo estaría justificado que se les prestara una especial atención en los programas de promoción de la salud, administrándoles conocimientos, habilidades y apoyo para evitar que utilicen este tipo de conductas de control del peso y para fomentar métodos de control saludables (alimentación sana y actividad física regular) que no pongan en riesgo su salud física y psicológica.…”