Given mixed findings regarding the unique trajectories of female and male adolescents’ body dissatisfaction over time, comprehensive longitudinal examinations are needed. This 10-year longitudinal, population-based study, with 1902 participants from diverse ethnic/racial and socioeconomic backgrounds in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, examined changes in body dissatisfaction from adolescence to young adulthood. Results revealed that: (a) female and male participants’ body dissatisfaction increased between middle and high school, (b) body dissatisfaction increased further during the transition to young adulthood, and (c) this increase was associated with an increase in BMI over time, such that the upward trend in body dissatisfaction became nonsignificant when BMI was controlled. These results highlight a trend in which diverse female and male youth are increasingly dissatisfied with their bodies as their BMI increases from middle school to young adulthood, and emphasize the need for targeted prevention efforts to intervene in this trajectory and mitigate potential harm.
Body dissatisfaction has emerged as a predictor of a broad range of disordered eating and weight-related outcomes, including frequent dieting (e.g., Ackard et al., 2002 and Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2006a), bulimic symptoms and dietary restraint (e.g., Cooley and Toray, 2001 and Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2006b), and weight gain (van den Berg & Neumark-Sztainer, 2007). In addition, body dissatisfaction has been identified as a risk factor in the development of related psychopathology, including symptoms of depression (e.g., Paxton, Neumark-Sztainer, Hannan, & Eisenberg, 2006), and as a mediator of the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and psychological health outcomes, including self-esteem (e.g., Mond et al., 2011 and Wertheim et al., 2001) and depressive mood (Mond et al., 2011).Given its negative health outcomes, it is important to know whether body dissatisfaction tends to dissipate over time, as adolescents transition into young adulthood, or whether body dissatisfaction in fact remains high. Longitudinal examinations are needed to more comprehensively track the course of adolescents’ body dissatisfaction over time.
