Original articleThe Development of Associations Among Body Mass Index, Body Dissatisfaction, and Weight and Shape Concern in Adolescent Boys and Girls
Section snippets
Participants
Data were drawn from the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS), an ongoing longitudinal study started in 1996. Participants were 9–14 years of age at baseline and were children of women in the Nurses' Health Study II. After receiving parental consent, children were enrolled in the GUTS cohort if they returned completed questionnaires at baseline (n = 16,882). Participants completed questionnaires annually from 1996 to 2001 and every 2 years after 2001. At each wave, paper questionnaires were sent to
Results
Tables 1 and 2 present demographic and descriptive statistics for girls and boys, respectively. Geographic region was a significant predictor of body dissatisfaction and weight and shape concern in boys, but not girls. Boys from the western United States reported lower odds of body dissatisfaction (OR = .86; 95% CI = .74, .98) and lower levels of weight and shape concern (β = −.07; 95% CI = −.12, −.01) than boys from the Northeast. Pubertal timing was not a significant predictor of body
Discussion
Extensive research indicates that body dissatisfaction and concern with weight and shape predict disordered weight control behaviors and eating disorders. Consistent with previous research [11], we found that higher BMI percentiles and older age predicted greater body dissatisfaction and weight and shape concern. However, the overall associations between BMI, body dissatisfaction, and weight and shape concern were nonlinear and differed profoundly by gender and age. Both overweight/obese and
Acknowledgments
J.P.C. is supported by National Research Service Award F32HD066792 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and a Pediatric Loan Repayment Program Award from the National Institutes of Health. GUTS was funded by grants HD057368, DK46834, HL03533, and MH087786 from the National Institutes of Health. K.R.S. and S.B.A. are supported by the Leadership Education in Adolescent Health project, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, HRSA grant 6T71-MC00009.
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