Body Image and Disturbed Eating Attitudes Among Adolescents

Abstract

Among all the psychiatric conditions, eating disorders has the highest mortality rates and most of the sufferers are adolescents. As the standards for beauty and attraction are changing and creating a bigger gap between actual and ideal body images resulting in dissatisfied, striving individuals to attain ideal body weight and shape. The current study is intended to explore the impact of closely related but discrete aspects of body image on disturbed eating attitudes among adolescents in Pakistan. Schools and universities were selected through convenient sampling, based on cross sectional research study involved 300 students of 15-20 years (M = 17.23, SD = 1.42) who completed the Eating Attitudes Test and Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaires. Analyses revealed that the adolescents with disturbed eating attitudes had scored significantly more on cognitive and affective components of body image that is overweight preoccupation and dissatisfaction with their body parts when compared to adolescents with normal eating patterns. Findings of this study are consistent with the existing literature in western culture that suggests that Preoccupation with weight and shape and body dissatisfaction is a risk factor for disturbed eating attitudes among adolescents.