Body Image Satisfaction and Involvement in Risky Sexual Behaviors Among University Students

This study examined the impact of body image satisfaction on university students’ (N = 465) involvement in risky sexual behaviors. A valid and reliable survey instrument was designed and administered to students in their classrooms at a Midwestern university. Of 465 participants, 53.8 % reported having low levels of body image satisfaction and 78.9 % indicated they had engaged in sexual intercourse during their lifetime. Of the sexually active students, 80 % have had sexual intercourse without the use of a condom, 76 % have had sexual intercourse while intoxicated, and 21 % have had sexual intercourse following illegal drug use. Students who had high body image satisfaction were significantly more likely to have ever engaged in sexual intercourse. These results should be considered when developing and implementing sexual education efforts for university students. Future studies should seek to identify specific strategies to increase body image satisfaction and decrease risky sexual behaviors among this high-risk population.     

社交媒体中自拍相关行为对身体映像的影响

社交媒体已经成为人们生活中的一部分, 其中自拍是社交媒体上常见的以外貌为核心的信息。研究发现, 自拍相关行为与用户的身体映像密切相关。社交媒体上的自拍相关行为包括自拍投入、自拍操纵、发布自拍、浏览自拍和自拍反馈投入等。由于个体在社交媒体上兼具信息发布者和接收者的双重身份, 所以可以将自拍投入、自拍操纵和发布自拍归类为发布者的主动性自拍行为, 将浏览自拍、自拍反馈投入归类为接收者的反应性自拍行为, 同时可以从主动性和反应性两个视角分析自拍相关行为对身体映像的影响, 并将作用过程分成身体监测、标准内化、外貌比较, 然后从个人、人际、环境三个层面列举可能影响自拍相关行为和身体映像的关系及作用过程的因素。未来研究可以从丰富被试取样、优化研究设计、细究自拍行为、关注调节变量和环境因素等方面进一步探讨自拍相关行为对身体映像的影响, 并从理论层面探讨网络空间中建构自我的过程。     

The link between women's body image disturbances and body-focused cancer screening behaviors: A critical review of the literature and a new integrated model for women

A large body of literature demonstrates the association between body image disturbances and health compromising behaviors among women (e.g., pathological eating, substance use, inappropriate exercise). However, given that disturbed body image is a pervasive problem, it is likely inversely related to health maintenance behaviors. Cancer screenings for breast, skin, and cervical cancer represent an important type of health maintenance behavior, yet adherence rates are low. Given the body-focused nature of these screenings, body image may be a salient predictor. This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between body image disturbances and cancer screening behaviors among women culminating in the proposal of a theoretical model. This model posits that body shame and body avoidance predict performance of cancer screenings and that variables drawn from the cancer literature, including risk perception, health anxiety, subjective norms, and self-efficacy, may moderate this relationship. Clinical implications and suggestions for research are discussed.     

Perceptions of parental attitudes toward body and eating: associations with body image among Black and White college women

This study examined Black and White young women's perceptions of parental body- and eating-related attitudes and behaviors from growing up and the relations of these parental factors with their current body image. Female undergraduates (97 Black women, 179 White women) completed questionnaires of perceptions of parental attitudes/behaviors related to body image and eating and of their current body image, operationalized as weight/shape concern. Results indicated that perceived parental communication was more strongly related to body image than perceived parental modeling in both ethnic groups, and that there were some differences in how frequently Black and White women reported encountering specific maternal messages about the body or eating. Perceived parental modeling and communication constructs were related to body image in similar ways for both ethnic groups after controlling for BMI. Future research directions are discussed.     

Cognitive Behavior Therapy With Body Image Exposure for Bulimia Nervosa: A Case Example

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for bulimia nervosa (BN). However, among patients with BN, symptom improvement is more pronounced for behavioral eating symptoms (i.e., bingeing and purging) than for body image disturbance, and the persistence of body image disturbance is associated with relapse. The need for more effective body image interventions led to the development of mirror exposure, which focuses on encouraging patients to view themselves in a holistic, nonjudgmental, mindful fashion. Behavioral manifestations of body image disturbance—body checking and avoidance—are also targeted in order to reduce and eliminate such behaviors and their associated preoccupation and distress. A preliminary trial of Body Image Exposure has shown promise, but it has not yet been tested in the context of CBT for BN. The case of “Sara” illustrates the application of this targeted treatment for body image disturbance. Central clinical issues around the perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral components of body image are delineated as they arose in treatment, as are issues of motivation and compliance. Treatment was associated with improvement in eating symptoms, body image, and mood.     

Disordered eating behaviors and body image in a longitudinal pilot study of adolescent girls: What happens 2 years later?

We assessed the prospective association of risk factors for eating and body image disturbances after a 2-year follow-up in a community sample of Spanish adolescent girls. The participants included 128 Spanish girls aged 12–14, who took part in a 28-month prospective study. Aspects assessed were eating attitudes (Eating Attitudes Test), influence of the body shape model (questionnaire on influences of the aesthetic body shape model), extreme weight-control behaviors (Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire), body image (Body Image Questionnaire) and Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI, extreme weight-control behaviors and body image problems emerged as potential predictors of an increase in eating disturbances. An increased influence of the thinness model was significantly associated with reduced body satisfaction and body image problems. Preventive programs are needed to contribute reducing the impact of sociocultural influences with regard to thinness, the use of extreme weight-control behaviors and overweight in adolescents.     

Support for a Modified Tripartite Dual Pathway Model of Body Image Concerns and Risky Body Change Behaviors in French Young Men

The aim of the present study was to extend the extant literature by testing a modified Tripartite Dual Pathway Model of the development of male body image and eating concerns among French young men. A sample of 147 French male college students (M _age = 22.09 years-old, range = 18–30) completed a questionnaire assessing sociocultural influences, internalization of the lean/low body fat ideal and the muscular/athletic ideal, appearance comparison, body fat and muscularity dissatisfaction, muscularity enhancement behaviors, drive for thinness, and bulimic symptoms. The revised and final model was an adequate fit to the data, and included separate pathways for muscularity- and leanness-related concerns. This model shows that sociocultural pressures perceived from the media, family members, and peers were associated, through appearance comparison and internalization of the lean and muscular ideal, with body image concerns, disordered eating, and muscularity enhancement behaviors. Results reveal a strong and direct relationship between the internalization of the muscular/athletic ideal and muscularity enhancement behaviors. These findings contribute to the refinement of sociocultural models of the development of body image concerns and unhealthy body change behaviors including disordered eating among men, provide additional support for the usefulness of these models, and extend them to non-English speaking Western contexts.     

Refinement of the tripartite influence model for men: dual body image pathways to body change behaviors

Although muscularity and body fat concerns are central to conceptualizing men's body image, they have not been examined together within existing structural models. This study refined the tripartite influence model (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1999) by including dual body image pathways (muscularity and body fat dissatisfaction) to engagement in muscular enhancement and disordered eating behaviors, respectively, and added dating partners as a source of social influence. Latent variable structural equation modeling analyses supported this quadripartite model in 473 undergraduate men. Nonsignificant paths were trimmed and two unanticipated paths were added. Muscularity dissatisfaction and body fat dissatisfaction represented dual body image pathways to men's engagement in muscularity enhancement behaviors and disordered eating behaviors, respectively. Pressures to be mesomorphic from friends, family, media, and dating partners made unique contributions to the model. Internalization of the mesomorphic ideal, muscularity dissatisfaction, and body fat dissatisfaction played key meditational roles within the model.     

Friendship clique and peer influences on body image concerns, dietary restraint, extreme weight-loss behaviors, and binge eating in adolescent girls.

This study explored friendship variables in relation to body image, dietary restraint, extreme weight-loss behaviors (EWEBs), and binge eating in adolescent girls. From 523 girls, 79 friendship cliques were identified using social network analysis. Participants completed questionnaires that assessed body image concerns, eating, friendship relations, and psychological family, and media variables. Similarity was greater for within than for between friendship cliques for body image concerns, dietary restraint, and EWLBs, but not for binge eating. Cliques high in body image concerns and dieting manifested these concerns in ways consistent with a high weight/shape-preoccupied subculture. Friendship attitudes contributed significantly to the prediction of individual body image concern and eating behaviors. Use of EWLBs by friends predicted an individual's own level of use.     

Relations Between Body Image and Dieting Behaviors: An Examination of Gender Differences

Although links between body image and dieting behaviors have been established among women, little research is available to elucidate relations between these constructs among men. In the present study, we examined relations between men's and women's body image and healthy and unhealthy dieting behaviors. Two hundred and eight participants' (104 men, mean age = 25.88 years; 104 women, mean age = 23.87 years) body perceptions and body satisfaction were assessed using the Contour Drawing Rating Scale. Participants' dieting behaviors were assessed using the Weight Control Behavior Scale and weight status was assessed using body mass index (BMI). Analyses of relations among BMI, body satisfaction, and healthy dieting behaviors revealed a predictable pattern for both men and women; BMI was inversely related to body satisfaction and was positively related to healthy dieting behaviors. Body satisfaction was inversely related to both men's and women's healthy and unhealthy dieting behaviors. Further analyses of the relations between men's and women's body image and unhealthy dieting behaviors suggest different motives for men's and women's participation in these potentially health-compromising weight-management techniques. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to researchers' understanding of the gendered nature of body image and dieting behaviors.     

Body and self in dolphins

In keeping with recent views of consciousness of self as represented in the body in action, empirical studies are reviewed that demonstrate a bottlenose dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus) conscious awareness of its own body and body parts, implying a representational "body image" system. Additional work reviewed demonstrates an advanced capability of dolphins for motor imitation of self-produced behaviors and of behaviors of others, including imitation of human actions, supporting hypotheses that dolphins have a sense of agency and ownership of their actions and may implicitly attribute those levels of self-awareness to others. Possibly, a mirror-neuron system, or its functional equivalent to that described in monkeys and humans, may mediate both self-awareness and awareness of others.     

Body image and risky sexual behaviors: an investigation in a tri-ethnic sample

The impact of negative body image on risky sexual behaviors has not been extensively investigated. The present study examined the relationship between two aspects of body image, appearance shame and appearance investment, and potentially risky behaviors. The study employed a tri-ethnic sample of 1547 women seeking services at two family planning clinics. Logistic regression was utilized to examine the relationship between potential risk behaviors and shame and investment. Results supported that these aspects of body image were significant predictors of inconsistent condom use, having multiple sex partners in the past year, and having sex after drinking alcohol or using drugs, and that demographic variables (e.g., age, marital status, ethnicity) could not fully account for these relationships. The importance of future research investigating the relationships among body image, perceived relationship security, affect-management strategies, and risky sexual behaviors is emphasized.     

Support for an expanded tripartite influence model with gay men

This study investigated whether an expanded tripartite influence model would represent gay men's experiences. This model was extended by adding partners and gay community involvement as sources of social influence and considering dual body image pathways (muscularity and body fat dissatisfaction) to muscularity enhancement and disordered eating behaviors. Latent variable structural equation modeling analyses upheld this model for 346 gay men. Dual body image pathways to body change behaviors were supported, although three unanticipated interrelationships emerged, suggesting that muscularity and body fat concerns and behaviors may be more integrated for gay men. Internalization of the mesomorphic ideal, appearance comparison, muscularity dissatisfaction, and body fat dissatisfaction were key mediators in the model. Of the sources of social influence, friend and media pressure to be lean, gay community involvement, and partner, friend, media, and family pressures to be muscular made incremental contributions. Unexpectedly, certain sources were directly connected to body change behaviors.     

Family influence on disordered eating: The role of body image dissatisfaction

Research has linked an appearance-focused family culture (including parental commentary about weight/size) with increased disordered eating and body image dissatisfaction in daughters. Since body image dissatisfaction is also a risk factor for disordered eating, body image dissatisfaction may contribute to the link between family focus on appearance and disordered eating. This correlational study included a sample of 268 college women who completed the Family Influence Scale, Bulimia Test – Revised, Body Shape Questionnaire, and a series of items about their parents’ comments about their weight/size. Both family appearance focus and daughters’ body image dissatisfaction predicted increased disordered eating in daughters. Additionally, body image dissatisfaction partially mediated the influence of family appearance focus on daughters’ disordered eating. No specific type of parental comments regarding weight/size emerged as a superior predictor of eating disturbance, but encouragement to control weight/size was a stronger predictor of body dissatisfaction than other types of parental comments.     

Impairment of the Body Image: Perceptions and Subjective Evaluations in Adolescents and Young Adults

The construction of body image consists of the ways in which the body is considered, perceived, and evaluated. The ideal body image has been changing considerably over the centuries; the discrepancy between real and ideal body, today, leads many individuals to be dissatisfied with their body, develop negative feelings, and, in some cases, unhealthy behaviors. All this has led, in recent decades, to a sort of cult of the body. As a matter of fact, in Western culture the body has turned into an idol, a strict and demanding god to which one often becomes a slave. This article presents a bibliographical review on the main theories concerning body image, thus opening a space for reflection on its relative disorders, first of all that of body dysmorphism.     

Considering an affect regulation framework for examining the association between body dissatisfaction and positive body image in Black older adolescent females: Does body mass index matter?

The present study provided an initial evaluation of an affect regulation model describing the association between body dissatisfaction and two contemporary measures of positive body image among 247 Black college-bound older adolescent females. We further tested whether possessing a higher body mass index (BMI) would strengthen these associations. Self-reported height and weight were used to calculate BMI. Respondents also completed a culturally-sensitive figure rating scale along with assessments of body appreciation and body image flexibility. Results indicated a robust positive association between the two measures of positive body image; BMI was the strongest predictor of both body appreciation and body image flexibility with body size discrepancy (current minus ideal) contributing incremental variance to both models tested. Implications for improving our understanding of the association between positive and negative body image and bolstering positive body image to promote health-protective behaviors among Black young women at this developmental juncture are discussed.     

Body dissatisfaction,engagement in body change behaviors and sociocultural influences on body image among Chinese adolescents

Body dissatisfaction and body image disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent in developing non-Western countries such as China, but there is a lack of research examining the sociocultural factors that in other contexts have been associated with these problems. The current study investigated body dissatisfaction, engagement in body change behaviors, and sociocultural pressures on body image, and the relationships between these variables among 517 adolescent males (N = 219) and females (N = 298) in China. Females reported greater body dissatisfaction than males, and males reported using strategies to increase their muscle bulk more often than females. Males reported pressure from a variety of sociocultural sources to increase their muscles or weight, while females reported pressure from the media to lose weight. For males body dissatisfaction was predicted by pressure from peers to increase their muscle bulk, while for females pressure to lose weight from peers, adult relatives, and the media was likely to increase body dissatisfaction. Pressure from the media and adult relatives was also predictive of body change behaviors in both males and females. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research in both Western and non-Western contexts.     

Support for the uniqueness of body dissatisfaction from drive for muscularity among men

This study explored whether three dimensions of men's body dissatisfaction (muscularity, body fat, and height) are distinct from drive for muscularity (body image, behaviors, and attitudes) in a sample of 368 college men. If body dissatisfaction is a unique construct, then it will be associated with psychological well-being above and beyond the variance accounted for by drive for muscularity body image, behaviors, and attitudes. Findings revealed such incremental evidence, supporting body dissatisfaction's unique contribution to all five investigated indices of psychological well-being. Overall, body dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity are not completely parallel constructs, highlighting the need to assess men's dissatisfaction with their muscularity, body fat, and height for a more comprehensive picture of their body image.     

Egg White or Sun-Kissed: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Skin Color and Women’s Leisure Behavior

The present study explores how culture-based meanings and values toward skin color, which are associated with women’s body image ideals and gender-role expectations, profoundly influence women’s leisure behaviors. Using in-depth interviews with East Asian, Asian American, and Euro-American women (n?=?43), results revealed how leisure behaviors are tied to cultural perceptions of skin color. People from different cultural backgrounds construct meanings and values pertaining to skin color, including beauty-related standards, social class, gender roles, and lifestyles. Culture-based values, such as the preference for tanned skin among Euro-Americans and for lighter skin among East Asians, affect a wide range of daily behaviors. These behaviors include conscious as well as subtle daily decision-making regarding sun-seeking, sun-avoidance, and sun-protection behaviors; indoor versus outdoor leisure participation; and appearance modifications. The study’s results add knowledge to how perceptions and attitudes toward skin color and appearance manifest in women's daily behavior in general and leisure behavior in particular. In addition, the current study shows how individual behaviors reflect cultural meanings and values toward body image, specifically skin color, by emphasizing the links between cultural values and women’s day-to-day lives.