Associations between body weight, psychiatric disorders and body image in female adolescents

The study explored associations between body weight, psychiatric disorders and body image in a nonclinical sample of female adolescents. It was also i nvestigated whether complaints of negative body image could be an indicator of psychiatric morbidity. Method's: A sample of 136 Swiss female high scho ol students, 15-20 years of age, initially had weight, height and body imag e (FBeK questionnaire) assessed and were screened for psychiatric morbidity (SSQ). Subsequently, they were assessed using the DIA-X psychiatric interv iew which generates DSM-IV diagnoses. Univariate, multivariate, regressive and canonical correlation analyses were performed. Results: Being overweigh t was significantly correlated with a more negative body image (attractiven ess/self-confidence). There were also significant correlations between psyc hiatric diagnoses and unfavorable body image (3 of the 4 FBeK scales). Besi des having a more disturbed body image, overweight subjects also evidenced more psychiatric morbidity. The multiple regression analysis revealed that psychiatric disorders had the greatest association with negative body image , followed by age and weight. The canonical correlation indicated that body image, psychiatric disorder, age and weight clearly correlated with one an other (R-xy = 0.43). Conclusion: Psychosomatic research should be more conc erned about issues of obesity and concurrent psychiatric morbidity and aim to develop preventative as well as therapeutic treatment methods. Physician s should be aware of the associations between obesity, negative body image and psychiatric morbidity. Copyright (C) 1999 S. Karger AG, Basel.