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Eating behaviours in adolescent girls: the role of body shame and body dissatisfaction

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Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Numerous studies are conducted to investigate factors influencing eating and weight-related problems, given the alarming prevalence of such behaviours among adolescents. The relationship between shame, especially body shame, and eating disorders has received increased attention in recent years. The current study contributes to this field by exploring body shame as a potential mediator of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and eating behaviours among adolescent girls, while controlling for age and body mass index (BMI).

Methods

The participants, 187 adolescent girls from three secondary schools in Zagreb, completed self-report measures of demographic, eating behaviours, body satisfaction and body shame.

Results

Body shame and body dissatisfaction explained statistically significant amount of eating behaviours variance, while controlling for age and BMI. Further, body shame partially mediated the relationship between body dissatisfaction and eating behaviours.

Conclusions

This study provides further evidence of the experience of body shame among adolescent girls and suggests that this shame is associated with disordered eating behaviours. Future longitudinal research designed to specifically explore body shame and other potentially shared risk factors is needed, and would enhance our understanding of eating disorder aetiology.

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Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of School of Medicine University of Zagreb and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Diagnostics in Zagreb, Prison System Directorate, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia

    Jelena Mustapic

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Darko Marcinko

  3. Department of Psychiatry, County Hospital Cakovec, Cakovec, Croatia

    Petra Vargek

Authors
  1. Jelena Mustapic
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  2. Darko Marcinko
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  3. Petra Vargek
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jelena Mustapic.

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Mustapic, J., Marcinko, D. & Vargek, P. Eating behaviours in adolescent girls: the role of body shame and body dissatisfaction. Eat Weight Disord 20, 329–335 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-015-0183-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-015-0183-2

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