A 5‐year longitudinal study of the relationship between the wish to be thinner, lifestyle behaviours and disturbed eating in 9–20‐year old girls

Abstract

The aim of this 5-year longitudinal study of 593 girls (9-20-year-old) was to examine whether the internalization of the thinness ideal in terms of 'a wish to be thinner' might be related to lifestyle factors and longitudinally increase the risk of disturbed eating over time. Results showed that a wish to be thinner was related to lifestyle factors, eating attitudes and body mass index (BMI) longitudinally. Girls who wished to be thinner dieted more often, thought that they would be more popular if they were thinner, skipped meals, were eating breakfast more often alone and had a higher BMI compared to the girls without such a wish. Girls who wished to be thinner were 4 times more likely to develop disturbed eating attitudes over a 5-year period. These findings point to the importance of helping adolescents to establish regular eating habits, to avoid unhealthy dieting practices and to prevent sedentary behaviours that might lead to overweight and or obesity in early childhood.

Balancing body perception during growth and development

“…Perception of overweight was found to be the strongest risk factor for dieting behaviours in both girls and boys; this factor persisted after adjusting for actual overweight and age, as has also been found in other studies (72,108). Moreover, body dissatisfaction was associated with less frequent consumption of breakfast in both sexes.…”

“…The increased prevalence of soft drink consumption as children age may result from the greater opportunities teenagers have to select and purchase their own food and beverages outside the home. Gender differences in eating habits may be attributable to the greater focus girls place on weight control (68,72).…”

“…The desire to be thin and the stigma of obesity may be of particular concern to girls and may have a significant effect on body image, self-esteem and weight control behaviours (72,73).…”

“…Balancing body perception during growth and development is essential for young people because it is associated with health and health behaviours in both the short-and long-term (72).…”

Body Weight Perception, Mental Health, and Weight Control Behavior in Normal Weight Adolescents: Based on the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2013-2015

“…The relationship between body image and lifestyle factors, such as physical activity and eating behavior, among adolescents has been reported from many countries [13][14][15][16][17][18]. To the best of our knowledge, only one study examined the relationship between a distorted perception of body image and lifestyle factors (breakfast, snack, night snack, eating speed, eating amount, wakeup time, bedtime, exercise) in Japanese adolescent girls [19], while there have been no studies on this association among adolescent boys.…”