Altabe, M., Thompson, J., K., (1990). Size Estimation Versus Figural Ratings of Body Image Disturbance: Relation to Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Dysfunction. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 11, 397-403.

The theoretical framework for this study is grounded in perceptual issues in terms of body perception and idealized image and standards for body type. The purpose of the study was to look at the interrelation among various measures of body image disturbance. This was achieved by examining the difference between a subject’s rating of a current size and ideal size, according to the authors. Stated another way the study was designed to further evaluate this issue by comparing different types of discrepancy indices to the traditional size overestimation measure.

Methods used included three measures: the Adjustable Light Beam Apparatus (ALBA), the Figure Rating Scale (FRS), and the Eating Disorders Inventory sub scales. Subjects consisted of 40 females for the first sample and 189 females and 108 males from the University of South Florida for the second sample. The procedure for the first sample lasted about 30 minutes and included each individual completing each questionnaire and having various body widths measured with calipers. Subjects in the second sample completed all questionnaires in a group setting. Regression analysis was performed on the data.

Results indicate that some significant and non-significant data for both males and females. For the figure ratings absolute size ratings foe feel and think instructions were highly correlated with measures of body dissatisfaction and eating disturbance. This suggests that larger figures are associated with greater disturbance. Each of the feel/think ideal discrepancy measures is correlated significantly with other measures of disturbance, indicating that greater discrepancies between self and ideal are associated with more dysfunction. None of the indices of size overestimation correlated significantly with the other measures of body image and eating disturbance. None of the absolute size estimates with the ALBA are significantly correlated with other measures and only one sub scale was correlated but not significantly. Generally, the findings in sample two largely replicated those of the first sample.

These findings suggest and encourage the need to conduct a multifaceted assessment of body image disturbance. More specifically, these findings suggest that global discrepancy measures may be more important than specific body-site dissatisfaction scores for men’s bulimic symptomatology. Also, the results indicate the better predictive power of figural discrepancy ratings over perceptual measures. In particular, researchers should attend to the important distinction between affective versus cognitive rating proticals.

Attie, I., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1989). Development of eating problems in adolescent girls: A longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 25 (1), 70-78.

The theoretical framework of the study was grounded in eating problems in girls as a result of normal maturation during adolescence. Contributing factors considered beyond pubertal growth were body image, personality development, and family relations. The purpose of the study was to find connections (or the lack of connections) between normal development and patterns of maladaptive eating behavior.

Methods used were based on a longitudinal design with times 1 and 2. Subjects numbered 193 white females with a mean age of 13.93. Questioners were administered at both pre and post tests. Those measures included indices to collect physical attributes, body image and perceptions of pubertal change, general personality dimensions, eating problems, as well as maternal and family variables. Three predictions were made: 1) Problem eating should be accounted for by the said variables above, 2) Compulsive eaters will manifest a higher degree of perceived ineffectiveness, perfectionism, and negative body image than will non-compulsive eaters, and 3) Compulsive eaters will manifest a higher degree of reported family role dysfunction and maternal concerns with weight and bodily issues.

Findings of the longitudinal analysis were based on three predictions stated earlier. In terms of problem eating it was found that change in eating behavior over time typically occurred among girls who initially scored low on the EAT-26 scale. This explained 19% of the variance. Ten percent of the variance was explained by the set of physical maturational factors (especially high body fat) when adjusted for grade. The family relationships variable (adolescent self-report) approached significance in the final step of the analysis. Also, predictors of eating problems changed from middle to later adolescence. Pubertal factors, in terms of maturational status, explained a significant portion of the variance at time 1, but dropped out two years later. Psychological dimensions were associated with compulsive eating at both time periods, whereas family relationships were not.

Implications suggest that eating problems emerge in response to physical changes of the pubertal period. Longitudinal results suggest that body shape becomes a primary focus and that efforts to control weight intensify during the middle-school years. In that this is a study of normal maturation implications include attitudinal, psychological, and familial factors sense physical development is inevitable. It was suggested that vulnerable girls tended to come from relatively less cohesive and supportive families, reported by their mothers.

Denniston, C., Roth, D., Gilroy, F., (1991). Dysphoria and Body Image Among College Women. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 12, 449-452.

A multidimensional approach was used to look at perceptions, attitudes, emotions, and personal reactions of individuals in relation to body type. Body image was specifically measured on three modalities: affective evaluation of appearance, cognitive appraisal of one’s body image relative to one’s peers, and perceptual size estimation.

Subjects were one hundred thirty-two undergraduate women from a small liberal arts college on the East coast. Mean age was 18.6 with an average body mass index of 21.64. Measures included a 7-item Appearance Evaluation sub scale of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) to evaluate subjects’ affect body experience. The self-report Feelings: Self and Body Scale (FSB) was administered as a cognitive measure of body image.

Findings indicated that there is a significant relationship between dysphoria and both affective and cognitive elevations of one’s body. There was no significant relationship between dysphoria alone and perceptual body image. Also, there was no significant relationship between dysphoria and perceptual size estimation scores. Implications are clear that a distinction needs to be made between affective, cognitive, and perceptual modalities in the assessment of body image disturbance. In addition, when taking into account the relationship between eating disorders and body image it is increasingly important to examine affective states.

Greenfield, D., Quinlen, D., Harding, P., Glass, E., & Bliss, A. (1987). Eating behavior in an adolescent population. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 6, 699-111.

A theoretical framework for this study was absent. It is a survey of risk factors for eating disorders in Greek and Anglo Australian adolescent girls. The study surveyed the eating attitudes and behaviors of a nearly complete sample of high school adolescent men and women with a mean age of 15.7. Specifically, questions were asked about either anorexia nervosa or bulimia and based on the DSM III criteria. Of particular interest were similarities and differences between weight, feeling overweight, and the reported weight expressed as a percentage of ideal weight for age and height.

Subjects were drawn from a large private preparatory boarding school located in New England. There were424 males and 337 females in the sample. The procedure involved employing an anonymous questionnaire consisting of 18 questions to ascertain detailed symptoms and behaviors mentioned in the DSM III.

It was found through stepwise discriminent function analysis that the two groups could me discriminated against based on the variables used. Correct classification in this sample was reported to be 73.9 percent. The most reliable discriminate variables were Pressure to Eat, EWLB’s, Family Adaptability, and Mother’s Shape. However, many of the eating disordered subjects did not contribute to the discriminate power of the variables. Implications include issues of cultural assimilation and adaptation.

Heinberg, L., J., Thompson, J., K., (1991). The effects of figurative size feedback (positive vs. negative) and target comparison group (particularistic vs. universalistic) on body image disturbance. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 12, 441-448.

The focus of study was to assess the effect of negative versus positive informational feedback regarding body size on subjects overall or general body dissatisfaction. The grounding theory is in the social comparison area. This approach was taken in that it was found in previous studies that body image is malleable and affected by many different factors. Subjects were compared to a universal group.

Methods used were based on eighty-two normal weight female subjects attending the University of South Florida as undergraduates. Subjects where randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups for feedback: positive-particularistic, positive-unparticularistic, negative-particularistic, and negatrive-unparticularistic. Nine measures were administered (eating disorder screening questionnaire, figure rating scale, eating disorders inventory body satisfaction scale, physical appearance state and trait anxiety scale, body dissatisfaction item, subjective units of discomfort scale, profile of mood states, the Rosenberg self-esteem inventory, and manipulation checks).

The findings revealed a main effect for the target comparison group, but no influence of information type in terms of positive and negative feedback. In other words, subjects whose size feedback was in reference to a particularistic group evidenced greater body image anxiety and distress than those whose figures were compared to a universalistic target. Suggested implications focus on upward comparison that leads to higher stress levels about body image and further suggests that social comparison is a negative phenomenon in this instance.

Mildred, H., Paxtion, S., J., & Wertheim, E., H. (1993). Risk Factors for Eating Disorders in Greek- and Anglo-Austrailian Adolescent Girls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 17, 1, 91-96.

The theoretical framework rests on past research that indicates ethnicity being a variable strongly related to eating disorders. The purpose of the present study explored cultural patterns relating to bulimic tendencies, body dissatisfaction, use of extreme weight loss behaviors, self-esteem, depression and family cohesion and adaptability.

The primary statistical method was a stepwise regression in order to find discriminant power for the variables under investigation. The sample consisted of 50 Anglo- and Greek-Australian girls with a mean age of 13.5. More importantly, the study was interested in discriminating between these two cultural groups on the given variables.

Findings were significant in that they correctly classified 73.9% of the sample. Specifically, Pressure to Eat, Extreme Weight Loss Behavior, and Family Adaptability were the most telling discriminant factors. However, some of the other variables often associated with eating disorders were not found to contribute to the discriminant equation. Implications point toward cultural assimilation as the possible predictor for this final washing out of effects commonly found by other researchers.

Levine, M., Smolak, L., Moodey, A., Shuman, M., & Hessen, L. (1994). Normative developmental challenges and dieting and eating disturbances in middle school girls. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 15, 1, 11-20.

The theoretical framework for this investigation was based in Smolak’s (1992) developmental model of dieting and eating disturbances within the range of normal developmental factors. The purpose of the study centered on three major predictions that were intended to illuminate normative developmental challenges related to dieting and eating disturbances in middle school girls. It is a cumulative stressor model that emphasizes the contribution of normative developmental factors to individual differences in terms of severity of these problems. These predictions were; 1) Changes in pubertal status and/or dieting status increase the probability of nonpathological dieting in middle school girls; 2) Concurrent change in pubertal status, dating status, and academic stress increases the probability of subclinical eating disturbances in girls with a slender body ideal; and 3) The co-occurrence of modeling cues and direct messages from peers and/or family about the importance of weight, shape, and dieting increases the probability of these effects. The model postulates that three aspects of early adolescence—weight/fat gains associated with advances pubertal status, the onset of dating, and the intensification of academic demands (achievement threat) –interact with a slender body ideal to determine the onset of either nonpathological dieting or eating disturbances in adolescent girls.

Subjects included 382 girls attending a small, Midwestern middle school. Child Eating Attitudes Test (ChEATS) questionnaires were administered to all the girls in order to gather data on a number of variables. Predictor variables included menarcheal status, dating status, simultaneous change, academic threat, family messasges concerning weight and shape, peer messages concerning weight and shape. Criterion variables were made up of shape dissatisfaction, weight management behavior, and disturbed eating.

Results included a number of significant findings. All variables but menarcheal and dating status were submitted to a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as a function of grade. Three between grade differences were found but were not significant to this study. However, other variables were found to be both significant and related.

In terms of weight management simultaneous change, mothers investment in her own slenderness and peer modeling were all significant predictors of weight management behavior. For shape dissatisfaction a small amount (R2=.09) was explained. Disturbed eating as measured by the ChEATS questionnaire found that girls who had experienced two changes simultaneously and who reported greater levels of academic pressure had the highest levels of disturbed eating. One significant discriminant function was identified for correlates of weight management versus correlates of disordered eating. That function consisted of simultaneous change X academic threat, simultaneous change X academic threat X ideal shape, and parental investment in daughter’s slenderness.

In general the findings suggest that the variables presented by the authors may be useful in distinguishing middle school girls at risk for subclinical eating disturbances from both girls who do not diet and girls whose dieting is or will be "normative." Specifically, and as predicted girls who had recently begun menstruating and dating engaged in more extensive and frequent weight management efforts than girls who had not. When both occurred during the same year engaged in more weight management behavior. Maternal and peer relations were found to contribute weight management behavior. Also, compounded with additional academic stress increased the risk for disturbed eating over the effect of the simultaneity alone.

The present study clearly suggests that the model presented by the authors does a good job distinguishing between potential eating disordered and non-eating disordered girls.

Mellin, L., Irwin, C., & Scully, S. (1992). Prevalence of disordered eating in girls: A survey of middle-class children. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 92, 851-853.

The theoretical framework centered on the prevalence of eating disorders in children. While there is little work done in this area the authors based this work on adolescent theory of the prevalence of disordered eating in girls. Specifically, the research brief was interested in understanding the relationship between disordered eating and age and weight in order to implement prevention.

Subjects were 484 girls ages 9 to 18 years from two different school systems in San Francisco. Methods included a questionnaire to assess attitudes and behaviors associated with disordered eating, height and weight data, and general demographic data. The questionnaire was developed for this study because existing instruments were deemed inappropriate for younger children.

The data was analyzed in such a way as to flag any endorsement of characteristics indicating disordered eating. This was done under the assumption that children would have healthy attitudes toward eating. Findings indicated dieting, fear of fatness, and binge eating were reported by 31% to 46% of 9-year-olds and 46% to 81% of 10-year-olds. There were other significant age differences found between the set age groups with the general trend being a progressive increase with age.

Implications suggest that characteristics of disordered eating may be widespread in urban, middle-class, and prepubescent girls. The study further suggests that nutritional assessments of school aged girls should include disordered eating evaluation. They strongly suggest that preventative educational activities should target girls before the middle school years.

Miller, T., M., Coffman, J., G., & Linke, R., A., (1980). Survey on body image, weight, and diet of college students. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 77, 561-566.

The framework for this study was to provide current data about body confirmation and dietary modifications in college students. The authors based this on past research that looked at college students nutritional inadequacies and faddish tendencies. The study was constructed to determine the relationship between anthropometric measurements, body image, desired weight, and diet of college students visiting a university health service.

Subjects were 22 men and 46 women undergraduate students between 18 and 23 years of age who had visited the health center at New York University during a two week stay. Methods included an anonymous questionnaire administered while they were in the waiting room. Students were asked to report on things such as present weight, height, and how much weight they would like to gain or loose. The student’s weights were plotted against height on the "Nomographic for Body mass Index". Calipers were used to measure body percent fat.

Results were reported in means. About half of those surveyed were classified in the normal anthropometric index category; however, the percentage of men was higher than that of women. For desired weight most of the men desired to be in the normal category while many of the women desired to be in the underweight category. In terms of body image half of the men perceived themselves to be normal while about two thirds of th women thought they were overweight or slightly overweight. In the relationship between anthropometric index and body image the majority of men within each anthropometric category perceived themselves to be in a similar body image category. Eighteen percent of those men overestimated. In all anthropometric categories the majority of women perceived themselves to be one category higher than was indicated by more objective assessment. In the relationship between anthropometric index and desired weight a discrepancy between students’ reported and desired weights was interpreted as dissatisfaction with their weight. The relationship bewteen body image and desired weight reviled a discrepancy between students’ perceptions of their own body image and their desired weights was interpreted as dissatisfaction with body image.

Adams, C., H., Kasper, E., More, D. (1993). Body image and eating behavior in adolescents. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 12, 5, 505-510.

The focus of this article is on the dissatisfaction with body weight and shape, as fueled by cultural ideals, in adolescents. Specifically, it is concerned with some weight control behaviors that are associated with more severe pathological conditions such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and may lead to the development of eating disorders.

The purpose of this article is to review the literature and make some suggestions about dealing with the issue of pre-psychopathological weight loss behaviors. Topics reviewed and discussed included satisfaction with body weight, satisfaction with body shape and parts, eating attitudes and behavior which includes dieting, purging, athletics as well as binge eating, and the roll of self-esteem.

The authors conclude that cultural ideals affect the attitudes of girls more than boys but that boys eating behaviors were still influenced. They state that regardless of the presence of definable psychopathology, involvement by normal or underweight adolescents in practices such as dieting, fasting and self-induced vomiting may be potentially harmful. They suggest that identification of adolescents in these practices should be made routine as preventative measures by implementing maintenance examinations to monitor appropriate nutritional or psychological health.

Rodriguea-Tome, Bariaund, M., Cohan Zardi, M., Delmas, C., Jeavoine, B., & Szylagyi, P. (1993). The effects of pubertal changes on body image and relations with peers of the opposite sex in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 16, 421-438.

The theoretical framework for this study rests in theories of adolescence. The investigation’s aim was to study the impact of pubertal changes on the image which the adolescent, boy and girl, constructs of his or her body, and on the relations which they establish with peers of the opposite sex. Specifically, how these variables are linked and associated with level of maturation.

Subjects included 157 French adolescents between the ages of 11 and 16. Maturation variables were measured for each adolescent with a medical examination and Tenner’s five-stage criteria. Psychological variables were measured on a 16-item, four point scale. These variables were broken down into perceived physical attractiveness and perceived physical condition. Finally, relation with peers of the opposite sex was also measured with an 8-item global type of questions about such relationships.

Findings about body image and relations with the opposite sex: age and sex differences resulted in no age effect nor age x sex interaction. There is no principal effect for physical condition (F2) nor any age x sex interaction. No other significant findings were found. Results for the impact of pubertal maturation on body image and relations with the opposite sex were found. In term of body image the results indicated that biological maturation has different effects on body image according to sex., and according to the aspects of body image considered. With regards to physical condition (F2) there was no effects. However, in terms of attractiveness (F1) clear differentiation appeared between boys and girls. For boys, physical condition is the only significant predictor of attractiveness. For girls, there is only a negative correlation between pubertal status and body attractiveness. In terms of relations with opposite sex peers there appear a couple significant findings. For boys only pubertal status (PS) was a predictor of the quality of relations with peers of the other sex. As puberty developed they viewed their relations more positively. For girls another pattern emerges. In youngest girls there is a negative correlation with breast enlargement. This factor seems to impede rather than favor relations with the opposite sex. Finally, level of maturation, body image and relations with peers of the opposite sex was examined. It was found that boys correlation are very weak between body image and the quality of relations with the opposite sex. Girls, on the other hand, exhibited strong correlation’s between the two components of body image and the quality of relations with the opposite sex. This remained true for the three age group categories considered.

Implications suggest societal factors that may effect boys and girls on these factors, as indicated in the literature review. The study has far reaching implications for further research into complex variables that influence the impact of the variables studied in the present examination.