Weight-Related Selves and Their Relationship With Body Mass Index Among Young Individuals in Curaçao

Abstract

Based on the assumptions of self-discrepancy theory, the present study examined the degree of overweight, weight-related body images, and the relation between these images and body mass index (BMI) among two samples of young people from Curaçao (secondary school students, n = 176; undergraduate students, n = 205). In addition to BMI, participants reported their current, ideal, and most feared body sizes, the thinnest and largest body sizes still acceptable to them, and the body size they considered the healthiest by means of the Contour Drawing Rating Scale. We expected females to show a larger discrepancy between current and ideal body size than males (Hypothesis 1) and that this discrepancy (as an indicator of body dissatisfaction) would be related more strongly to BMI among females than among males (Hypothesis 2). Results yielded support for Hypothesis 1 among secondary school students only. Only in the undergraduate sample, BMI and body dissatisfaction were related, but equally so for males and females. Possible explanations are discussed as well as implications for weight management interventions.

Psychology in the Caribbean: Broadening Our Knowledge Base

“…The authors found preliminary evidence in support of several aspects of validity. In the third and final piece, Dijkstra, Van Brummen-Girigori, and Barelds (2019) examined the association between body mass index and weight-related body images in independent samples of secondary school students and university undergraduates in Curacao; they also looked at participants' views of current, ideal, and feared selves in terms of body size. Findings differed in the two different samples, leading to questions about study limitations or lack of generalizability of findings from studies in other contexts.…”