Risk Factors for Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescent Girls ...

1 Risk Factors for body Dissatisfaction in Adolescent Girls :A longitudinal InvestigationEric Stice and Kathryn WhitentonUniversity of Texas at AustinBecause few prospective studies have examined predictors of body Dissatisfaction an established riskfactor for eating disorders the authors tested whether a set of sociocultural, biological, interpersonal,and affective Factors predicted increases in body Dissatisfaction using longitudinal data from adolescentgirls (N 496). Elevated adiposity, perceived pressure to be thin, thin-ideal internalization, and socialsupport deficits predicted increases in body Dissatisfaction , but early menarche, weight-related teasing,and depression did not.

2 There was evidence of 2 distinct pathways to body Dissatisfaction 1 involvingpressure to be thin and 1 involving adiposity. Results support the contention that certain sociocultural,biological, and interpersonal Factors increase the risk for body Dissatisfaction , but suggest that otheraccepted risk Factors are not related to this large portion of Adolescent Girls report significant body dis-satisfaction (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn,1999). This body Dissatisfaction is associated with marked emo-tional distress, appearance rumination, and unnecessary cosmeticsurgery (Ohring, Graber, & Brooks-Gunn, 2002; Thompson et al.)

3 ,1999). body Dissatisfaction also increases the risk for subsequentonset of eating pathology (Attie & Brooks-Gunn, 1989; Killen etal., 1996) and depression among Adolescent Girls (Rierdan, Koff, &Stubbs, 1989; Stice, Hayward, Cameron, Killen, & Taylor, 2000).Despite the evidence that body Dissatisfaction is pervasive and isassociated with concurrent and subsequent psychopathology, fewstudies have investigated the risk Factors that predict developmentof body Dissatisfaction . Accordingly, the goal of this study was totest whether a set of sociocultural, biological, interpersonal, andaffective risk Factors predicted increases in body Dissatisfaction byobtaining longitudinal data from early Adolescent putative risk Factors for body Dissatisfaction that havereceived the most theoretical attention involve sociocultural pres-sures.

4 It has been suggested that pressure to be thin from one ssocial environment fosters body Dissatisfaction because repeatedmessages that one is not thin enough would be expected to producediscontent with physical appearance (Striegel-Moore, Silberstein,& Rodin, 1986; Thompson et al., 1999). These pressures to be thincan emanate from a variety of sources, such as parents, peers,dating partners, and the media. Further, these pressures to be thincan be direct, such as a parent encouraging a daughter to diet, orindirect, such as a peer voicing admiration of ultraslender have also suggested that weight-related teasing contrib-utes to body image disturbances (Cattarin & Thompson, 1994).

5 Forexample, overweight children may be given derogatory names thatare applied for years. In addition, heightened internalization of thecurrent thin ideal espoused for females and the belief that achiev-ing thinness will result in a plethora of social benefits, such asacceptance and academic success, is also thought to promote bodydissatisfaction (Stice & Bearman, 2001). Theoretically, the relent-less pursuit of an ultraslender body that is virtually unattainablepromotes Dissatisfaction with one s physical is emerging support for the hypothesized effects of so-ciocultural pressures.

6 First, perceived pressure to be thin predictedsubsequent increases in body Dissatisfaction (Field et al., 2001;Stice & Bearman, 2001). Pressure to be thin from peers (being toldto diet) was not significantly related to increase in body dissatis-faction in one study (Byely, Archibald, Graber, & Brooks-Gunn,2000), but the null effect likely occurred because the small sampleresulted in low statistical power. Another study that used a smallsample found that weight-related teasing did not predict increasesin body Dissatisfaction (Cattarin & Thompson, 1994).

7 Nonetheless,one study found that elevated thin-ideal internalization predictedincreases in body Dissatisfaction (Stice & Bearman, 2001). Thereis also experimental evidence that an intervention that decreasesthin-ideal internalization resulted in reduced body Dissatisfaction (Stice, Mazotti, Weibel, & Agras, 2000). Within this context itshould be noted that we focused exclusively on prospective orexperimental studies in our literature review because it is notpossible to differentiate a precursor of body Dissatisfaction from aconsequence with cross-sectional data.

8 This is critical because it ispossible that elevated body Dissatisfaction causes the putative riskfactors ( , body Dissatisfaction might cause Girls to perceivegreater pressure to be thin). In addition, we included only prospec-tive studies that tested whether a putative risk factor predictedsubsequent body Dissatisfaction above and beyond the effects ofinitial body Dissatisfaction because it is necessary to control forEric Stice and Kathryn Whitenton, Department of Psychology, Univer-sity of Texas at study was supported by a career award (MH01708) and a researchgrant (MH/DK61957) from the National Institutes of Health.

9 Thanks go toKatherine Presnell, Gabriela Redwine, and Heather Shaw for their thought-ful input regarding earlier drafts of this article. We also thank projectresearch assistants Anne Appel, Sarah Kate Bearman, Allison Chase,Natalie McKee, Susan Stormer, and Ariel Trost, an army of undergraduatevolunteers, the Austin Independent School District, and the participantswho made this study concerning this article should be addressed to EricStice, Department of Psychology, 330 Mezes Hall, University of Texas atAustin, Austin, Texas 78712.

10 E-mail: PsychologyCopyright 2002 by the American Psychological Association, , Vol. 38, No. 5, 669 6780012-1649/02/$ DOI: levels of the outcome to provide evidence of a prospectiveeffect ( , model change). In studies that do not control for initiallevels of the outcome, it is possible that an apparent prospectiveeffect is due to a reverse direction of has also been suggested that certain biological Factors promotebody Dissatisfaction . Researchers have posited that early pubertaldevelopment fosters body Dissatisfaction because the marked in-crease in adipose tissue that accompanies puberty moves earlymaturing Girls away from the thin beauty ideal (Graber, Brooks-Gunn, Paikoff, & Warren, 1994; Tobin-Richards, Boxer, Kavrell,& Petersen, 1984).