The role of global negative self-evaluations in the influence of body weight on weight and eating concerns.
The aim of this study was to test a model based on the assumption that a social comparison-process of body mass index could lead to weight and eating concerns by lowering self-evaluation. Three hundred and ninety-five girls from five age cohorts (in grades five through nine at the time of data collection) participated in a questionnaire-based study. Support for a model where global negative self-evaluations played a mediating role was found among the oldest girls who perceived slimness norms among their peers. Among girls not perceiving a norm of thinness, and among younger girls perceiving such a norm, the model found no support. The proposed model gives an explanation of how the dynamic process of social norms of thinness, body weight and self-evaluation, can cause some girls to become concerned about their body weight.
Lau
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Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Norway.
D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D001827:Body Height; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D002648:Child; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012928:Social Desirability; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires