Longitudinal relationship between experience of sexual harassment and 2-year body image and weight outcomes in adolescence: mediation through self-objectification and psychological distress

BACKGROUND

The current study investigated the experience of sexual harassment as a risk factor for weight gain and weight/shape concerns in a community sample of adolescents, with potential mediating factors self-objectification and psychological distress.

METHOD

1034 Australian adolescents (aged 11 to 19 years) from the EveryBODY longitudinal study of disordered eating pathology participated. Data were collected through online surveys annually for 3 years. Participants completed self-report measures of demographics, sexual harassment, psychological distress, self-objectification, weight/shape concerns and BMI percentile.

RESULTS

A parallel mediation model adjusting for baseline scores found no direct effect between baseline experiences of sexual harassment and change in BMI percentile or weight/shape concern after 2 years. Experiences of sexual harassment significantly increased self-objectification scores after 1 year in female adolescents. Subsequently, higher self-objectification significantly increased the risk of greater weight/shape concern after 1 year in female adolescents. However, no significant mediating relationship was found in the relationship between sexual harassment and weight/shape concern or BMI percentile for either gender. Psychological distress was found to be a clear risk factor for weight/shape concern in both genders after 1 year.

CONCLUSIONS

Intervention programmes in schools should focus on developing policies to reduce sexual harassment, self-objectification and distress in adolescents.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level IV, longitudinal multiple time series without intervention.

Reciprocal longitudinal relations between weight/shape concern and comorbid pathology among women at very high risk for eating disorder onset

PURPOSE

Understanding how known eating disorder (ED) risk factors change in relating to one another over time may inform efficient intervention targets. We examined short-term (i.e., 1 month) reciprocal longitudinal relations between weight/shape concern and comorbid symptoms (i.e., depressed mood, anxiety) and behaviors (i.e., binge drinking) over the course of 24 months using cross-lagged panel models.

METHODS

Participants were 185 women aged 18-25 years at very high risk for ED onset, randomized to an online ED preventive intervention or waitlist control. We also tested whether relations differed based on intervention receipt.

RESULTS

Weight/shape concern in 1 month significantly predicted depressed mood the following month; depressed mood in 1 month also predicted weight/shape concern the following month, but the effect size was smaller. Likewise, weight/shape concern in 1 month significantly predicted anxiety the following month, but the reverse was not true. Results showed no temporal relations between weight/shape concern and binge drinking in either direction. Relations between weight/shape concern, and comorbid symptoms and behaviors did not differ based on intervention receipt.

CONCLUSIONS

Results support focusing intervention on reducing weight/shape concern over reducing comorbid constructs for efficient short-term change.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level I, evidence obtained from a properly designed randomized controlled trial.

Prospective relations among internalization of beauty ideals, body image concerns, and body change behaviors: Considering thinness and muscularity

Common models propose that the internalization of societal beauty ideals influences disordered eating behaviors and muscularity-oriented behaviors via body image concerns. However, previous studies addressing these pathways have been mainly cross-sectional and primarily included female samples. We investigated these pathways prospectively in male and female adolescents and young adults, examining two pathways: a 'weight/shape pathway,' linking thin-ideal internalization, weight/shape concern, and restrained eating, and a 'muscularity pathway,' linking athletic-ideal internalization, muscularity concern, and muscularity-oriented behavior. Across three time points, 973 participants from the German general population were assessed. Although the hypothesized pathways could not be supported in their complete temporal sequence, several hypothesized pathways occurred across two time points. Among others, weight/shape concern predicted restrained eating and the athletic ideal played a prominent role in the prediction of muscularity-oriented behavior in both genders.

Weight/shape and muscularity concerns and emotional problems in adolescent boys and girls: A cross-lagged panel analysis

INTRODUCTION

The goal of the present study was to identify the prospective relations between weight/shape and muscularity concerns and emotional problems in adolescents.

METHODS

Self-report data of 966 German male and female adolescents were analyzed in a cross-lagged panel design.

RESULTS

Analyses of latent means revealed significant correlations between weight/shape concern and emotional problems as well as between muscularity concern and emotional problems in both genders. Moreover, weight/shape concern predicted emotional problems prospectively, but only in girls. Regarding muscularity concern, we could not find any prospective relation with emotional problems in boys or girls from the general population.

CONCLUSIONS

It is assumed that as appearance is highly relevant for the self-concept in girls, concerns about the look might promote emotional problems. Thus, weight/shape concern should be addressed in the prevention of emotional problems in adolescent girls, whereas further research is necessary investigating the contribution of muscularity concern in this context.