Self-esteem, body esteem, and body-mass in late adolescence: Is a competence x importance model needed?

Junior college students provided measures of self-esteem, body esteem, the importance attributed to three body-esteem domains (weight, appearance, and others' evaluations of one's appearance), and body mass index (BMI). Adole scents who thought weight was important tended to I ate their global self-e steem, their appearance, and weight satisfaction low. For women, high BMI p redicted low self-ratings of romantic competence. For individuals who regar ded weight as important, high BMI predicted low global self-esteem and low self-evaluations of appearance. High BMI also predicted low self-ratings in the two other body-esteem domains, especially for women. Finally, regardle ss of the importance attributed to body-esteem domains. adolescents with po sitive feelings about their appearance had high global self-worth.