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Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: Body image distortions such as perception biases are assumed to be precursors of eating disorders (ED). This study aims to investigate body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among a sample of 11–17 year-old students in Germany. METHODS: A cross-secti...

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Autores principales: Schuck, Kathrin, Munsch, Simone, Schneider, Silvia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5782362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29410705
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13034-018-0216-5
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author Schuck, Kathrin
Munsch, Simone
Schneider, Silvia
author_facet Schuck, Kathrin
Munsch, Simone
Schneider, Silvia
author_sort Schuck, Kathrin
collection PubMed
description THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: Body image distortions such as perception biases are assumed to be precursors of eating disorders (ED). This study aims to investigate body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among a sample of 11–17 year-old students in Germany. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey study was carried out among 1524 students of twelve secondary schools from all school types in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). A naturalistic photograph-rating consisting of photographs of young women’s bodies was used to examine children’s perceptions of female bodies (i.e., perceived average body size and perceived ideal body size of young women). Also, symptoms of disturbed eating behavior were examined. RESULTS: Compared to statistical data, children and adolescents underestimated the average body size of young women by more than two BMI-points (estimated average BMI = 20), with no differences between boys and girls. Also, girls and boys generally held a slim female thin-ideal (perceived ideal BMI = 19.5), which is nearly three BMI-points below the average body size in the young female population. Girls showed a slightly stronger female thin-ideal than boys. Among all subgroups, early-adolescent girls (13–14 years) displayed the strongest thin-ideal internalization. Nearly one-third of this group perceived a BMI below 18 as ideal female body size. Symptoms of disturbed eating behavior were common among youth and most frequent among adolescent girls (15–17 years). Girls who displayed a bias towards underestimation of female body size and girls who displayed an underweight female thin-ideal were more likely to report harmful dieting behaviors and psychological distress associated with eating, body, and weight. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that 11–17 year-old girls and boys do not show accurate judgements regarding the average body size of young women. Instead, there is systematic and significant underestimation, indicating considerable perception biases, which may constitute a risk factor for the development and maintenance of ED. Symptoms of disturbed eating behavior were common, especially among girls, and associated with body-related perceptions. Future research will need to clarify the severity and course of these symptoms.
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spelling pubmed-57823622018-02-06 Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany Schuck, Kathrin Munsch, Simone Schneider, Silvia Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health Research Article THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: Body image distortions such as perception biases are assumed to be precursors of eating disorders (ED). This study aims to investigate body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among a sample of 11–17 year-old students in Germany. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey study was carried out among 1524 students of twelve secondary schools from all school types in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany). A naturalistic photograph-rating consisting of photographs of young women’s bodies was used to examine children’s perceptions of female bodies (i.e., perceived average body size and perceived ideal body size of young women). Also, symptoms of disturbed eating behavior were examined. RESULTS: Compared to statistical data, children and adolescents underestimated the average body size of young women by more than two BMI-points (estimated average BMI = 20), with no differences between boys and girls. Also, girls and boys generally held a slim female thin-ideal (perceived ideal BMI = 19.5), which is nearly three BMI-points below the average body size in the young female population. Girls showed a slightly stronger female thin-ideal than boys. Among all subgroups, early-adolescent girls (13–14 years) displayed the strongest thin-ideal internalization. Nearly one-third of this group perceived a BMI below 18 as ideal female body size. Symptoms of disturbed eating behavior were common among youth and most frequent among adolescent girls (15–17 years). Girls who displayed a bias towards underestimation of female body size and girls who displayed an underweight female thin-ideal were more likely to report harmful dieting behaviors and psychological distress associated with eating, body, and weight. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that 11–17 year-old girls and boys do not show accurate judgements regarding the average body size of young women. Instead, there is systematic and significant underestimation, indicating considerable perception biases, which may constitute a risk factor for the development and maintenance of ED. Symptoms of disturbed eating behavior were common, especially among girls, and associated with body-related perceptions. Future research will need to clarify the severity and course of these symptoms. BioMed Central 2018-01-24 /pmc/articles/PMC5782362/ /pubmed/29410705 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13034-018-0216-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Schuck, Kathrin
Munsch, Simone
Schneider, Silvia
Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany
title Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany
title_full Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany
title_fullStr Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany
title_full_unstemmed Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany
title_short Body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in Germany
title_sort body image perceptions and symptoms of disturbed eating behavior among children and adolescents in germany
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5782362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29410705
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13034-018-0216-5
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