تنظیم احساسات روابط بین نگرانی های تصویر بدن و علائم روان شناختی را تعدیل می کند

The study investigated the moderating role of emotion regulation (ER) in relationships between body image concerns and psychological symptomatology. A community sample of 533 boys and girls (11–20 years) completed measures assessing body image thoughts and feelings, domain-specific and general ER strategies, drive for thinness, and bulimic, depressive and anxiety symptoms. Results indicated that ER moderated relationships between body image concerns and both bulimic and depressive symptoms, but not relationships between body image concerns and drive for thinness or anxiety symptoms. Adolescents who reported frequent body image concerns were more likely to have higher levels of bulimic symptoms if they tended to use avoidance and internal dysfunctional ER strategies. Furthermore, adolescents who reported frequent body image concerns were more likely to have higher levels of depressive symptoms if they used positive rational acceptance and internal functional strategies infrequently. Implications of the findings for prevention and intervention are discussed.

In today's body-conscious culture, adolescents frequently encounter situations and messages which may evoke body image concerns (Dittmar, Halliwell, Banerjee, Gardarsdottir, & Jankovic, 2007). Around 30–50% of girls in developed countries are dissatisfied with their weight and appearance (Thompson, 2001), and increasing numbers of boys are also dissatisfied with their appearance (O’Dea & Yager, 2006). There is growing evidence that such concerns contribute to pervasive body image disturbances and disordered eating (Cash et al., 2004 and Verplanken and Velsvik, 2008) and may be associated with other mental health problems such as depression and anxiety (Cash et al., 2004 and Kostanski and Gullone, 1998). Body image concerns can cause significant distress for individuals and impact negatively on quality of life, interpersonal relationships and academic/vocational functioning (Cash & Fleming, 2002). Nevertheless, despite many adolescents experiencing body image concerns, only a portion exhibits mental health problems (Cash, 2002a). Therefore, it seems that for many adolescents, body image concerns may be benign or transient experiences which are of little clinical or long-term consequence. Such differences are likely due to individual variations in important risk and protective factors; that is, factors which increase or decrease the likelihood that body image concerns will lead to mental health problems. One factor known to be of importance for mental health but which has received little attention in relation to body image is emotion regulation. Emotion regulation (ER) refers to the processes by which emotional experiences are evaluated, monitored, maintained, and modified (Thompson, 1994). To a large extent, it determines the emotions we experience, as well as when and how we experience and express them (Gross, 1998). ER difficulties have been implicated in the majority of psychological disorders (Gross & Levenson, 1997). As such, ER is moving to the forefront of investigations aimed at understanding the risk and protective factors associated with trajectories of mental health and illness, including depression, anxiety, and behavior problems amongst others (Amstadter, 2008 and Durbin and Shafir, 2008). Research suggests that poorly developed ER competencies and the use of strategies that prolong or magnify negative affect pose significant risk for the development and maintenance of mental illness. For example, greater use of emotion suppression, self-blame, rumination and catastrophizing, and less use of cognitive reappraisal and refocusing have been associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety and greater peer problems in adolescents (Betts et al., 2009, d’Acremont and Van der Linden, 2007, Hughes et al., 2010 and Phillips and Power, 2007). There is also some existing research linking difficulties in emotional functioning to disordered eating. For example, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder have been variously related to elevated negative affect, alexithymia, suppressed emotion, and poor emotional awareness (Cochrane et al., 1993, Geller et al., 2000, Legenbauer et al., 2008 and Markey and Vander Wal, 2007). Studies investigating associations between ER and body image concerns, however, are scarce. In one related exception, strategies used to cope with body image threats were reported to be associated with psychosocial functioning (Cash, Santos, & Williams, 2005). Specifically, greater use of appearance fixing and avoidance strategies, and less use of positive acceptance strategies were associated with greater body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms as well as lower self-esteem and social support. Given the demonstrated links between ER and mental health and illness as reported in past research, it is proposed that ER may moderate relationships between body image concerns and adolescent mental health. Specifically, it is posited that adolescents who are able to effectively regulate their emotions are less likely to experience mental health problems related to body image concerns. In contrast, adolescents who have a more dysfunctional regulatory style are posited to be at increased risk of mental health problems. It is noteworthy that no studies could be found which have examined the potential moderating role of ER in the relationship between body image concerns and adolescent mental health. Furthermore, studies of body image concerns have typically focused on outcomes such as body image distortion and disordered eating to the neglect of other known correlates of body image concerns such as depression and anxiety (Cash et al., 2004 and Kostanski and Gullone, 1998). The current study therefore aimed to examine the moderating role of ER in relationships between body image concerns and eating disorder, depressive, and anxiety symptoms in a community sample of adolescents. Adolescence was the focus of the research given that this is a period characterized by heightened body image concerns (Levine & Smolak, 2002). It was hypothesized that: (i) body image concerns (i.e., negative emotions and cognitions about one's appearance) would be associated with eating disorder, depressive, and anxiety symptoms, and (ii) emotion regulation would moderate these relationships. Specifically, body image concerns were expected to be more strongly related to mental health problems for adolescents who more frequently utilized dysfunctional ER strategies and less frequently utilized functional ER strategies. Thompson (1994) has argued that the context and the goals of the individual are important considerations in determining the functionality of ER. This suggests that the ER strategies a person utilizes in one situation may not be appropriate in another situation. Therefore, two types of ER strategies were examined in the current study based on domain specificity. Domain-specific ER strategies were those that adolescents used when faced with body image threats and challenges. They included appearance fixing, avoidance, and positive rational acceptance (Cash et al., 2005). General ER strategies were those that adolescents used to manage emotions generally and were not necessarily specific to body image concerns (Phillips & Power, 2007). It was expected that domain-specific strategies would be more salient in moderating relationships between body image concerns and symptomatology as indicated by larger moderation effects and/or a larger proportion of significant effects.