Abnormal perception of body weight is not solely observed in pubertal girls: incorrect body image in children and its relationship to body weight

Abstract

Perceived actual body weight and perceived ideal weight were assessed in 255 Japanese children and adolescents (130 boys, 125 girls) aged 6 years through 18 years using the drawing test to clarify whether they wanted to be thinner or to gain weight. More than half (68%) of the girls attending high school and 41% of the elementary school girls perceived their ideal weight to be less than the standard. The mean difference between the perceived actual weight and the ideal weight was positive in the high school girls of normal weight as well as in the overweight girls, meaning that even the normal-weight girls wanted to lose weight. The difference was also slightly positive in the underweight girls. The difference in the high school boys was negative, demonstrating that they wished to gain weight. It is suggested that girls want to lose weight even before adolescence; this tendency becomes more prominent in the high school period and is mostly unrelated to their own weight.

Excessive Food Aversion, Compulsive Exercise and Decreased Height Gain Due to Fear of Obesity in a Prepubertal Girl

“…It is demonstrated that fear of obesi ty may be found before puberty as well as in adolescent girls. The results are consistent with the proposal that weight phobia is not always necessary for a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa and rather related with culture [8] and also with the previous studies [17,18] that the desire for thinness was found in girls without anorexia nervosa. Eating behavior and its derangement in prepubertal girls seem similar, but not identical, to those in adoles cents.…”

“…How ever, distorted body image does not seem the sole cause of eating disorder because the dis tortion is also found in many normal-weight girls without anorexia nervosa [4,12,13,[16][17][18], In addition, cases of nonweight-phobic anorexia nervosa were demonstrated [8], It is proposed that other factors, such as maturational conflict or changes in hormonal secre tion which occur in the pubertal period, prob ably contribute to the onset of eating disor ders in adolescent girls [24,[26][27][28].…”

“…It has been reported that a number of girls have a disturbed body image in the adolescent period [12], which may contribute, at least partly, to abnormal eating attitudes [1,2,4,13,14], Moreover, recent reports have shown that prepubertal girls tend to have a desire to be thinner more frequently than boys [15][16][17][18], Weight phobia does not seem to be the spe cific feature of anorexia nervosa [8], but rath er appears to be generally found.…”

Dieting and Body Image in the Child's World: Conceptualization and Behavior

“…On the other hand, the authors noted that both the test-retest and internal reliability measures for the scale were high. Over the past 6 years, several other researchers have published findings that indicate a similar trend in preadolescents' development of perceived body-image dissatisfaction and restrictive dietary behaviors (Ohtahara, Ohzeki, Hanaki, Motozumi, & Shiraki, 1992; Rhyne-Winkler, 1994; Rolland et al, 1997;Thelen et al, 1992). For example, a study by Thelen et al (1992) of eating and bodyimage concerns among 19 1 non-obese children (74 in second grade, mean age 8.2 years; 54 in fourth grade, mean age 10.4 years; 63 in sixth M e , mean age 12.4 years) indicated that young girls begin to be concerned about weight between second and fourth grades, concurring with the proposal by Maloney et al (1989) that the genesis is around Grade 3.…”

Emotional eating and eating psychopathology in nonclinical groups: A cross-cultural comparison of women in Japan and the United Kingdom

“…In recent years, a number of studies in Japan have established normative levels of eating psychopathology and of related morbidity (Furukawa, 1994;Kiriike, Nagata, Tanaka, Matsunaga, 1988;Kuboki, Nomura, Kumano, & Suematsu, 1996;Matsunaga & Kiriike, 1997). Other Japanese researchers have begun to explore the psychological and dietary factors that might underpin eating problems in their culture (Matsumoto, Kumano, & Sakano, 1997;Ohtahara, Ohzeki, Hanaki, Motozumi, & Shiraki, 1993;Ono et al, 1996). Finally, there is considerable interest in the Japanese literature in the issue of treatment (Kikuchi, 1996;Naruo, Homan, Soejima, Nozoe, & Tanaka, 1996;Taguchi, Kawakami, & Yamauchi, 1996).…”