Interaction of hormonal and social environments in understanding body image concerns in adolescent girls

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.12.008

Journal of Psychiatric Research

Volume 109, February 2019, Pages 178-184

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.12.008 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Both the peer environment and hormones may contribute to body image concerns.
•
Progesterone moderates the association between peer approval and body image.
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Higher progesterone levels may raise vulnerability to peer influence on body image.

Abstract

During adolescence, peer approval becomes increasingly important and may be perceived as contingent upon appearance in girls. Concurrently, girls experience hormonal changes, including an increase in progesterone. Progesterone has been implicated in affiliative behavior but inconsistently associated with body image concerns. The current study sought to examine whether progesterone may moderate the association between perceived social pressures to conform to the thin ideal and body image concerns. Secondary analyses were conducted in cross-sectional data from 813 girls in early puberty and beyond (ages 8–16) who completed assessments of the peer environment, body image concerns, and progesterone. Models for mediation and moderation were examined with BMI, age, and menarcheal status as covariates. Belief that popularity was linked to appearance and the experience of weight-related teasing were both positively associated with greater body image concerns, but neither was associated with progesterone once adjusting for covariates. Progesterone significantly interacted with perceived social pressures in predicting body image concerns. At higher progesterone levels, appearance-popularity beliefs and weight-related teasing were more strongly related to body image concerns than they were at lower progesterone levels. Findings support a moderating role for progesterone in the link between social pressures and body image concerns in girls. This study adds to a growing literature examining how girls’ hormonal environments may modulate responses to their social environments. Longitudinal and experimental work is needed to understand temporal relations and mechanisms behind these associations.

Section snippets

Participants

Data represent a secondary analysis of 813 female twins (n = 450 families)¹ from the Michigan State University Twin Registry (Burt and Klump, 2013; Klump and Burt, 2006) who were enrolled in the study “Twin Study of Mood, Behavior, and Hormones during Puberty” (MBHP). Prior reports from the parent study

Descriptive analyses and Bivariate associations

Table 1 displays correlations among study variables. Age, BMI percentile, and menarcheal status were positively associated with body image concerns. Both peer attributions and teasing were positively associated with body image concerns, such that girls with stronger appearance-popularity beliefs and with a greater history of weight-related teasing had the highest body image concerns. Progesterone was positively associated with appearance-popularity beliefs, but progesterone was not associated

Discussion

The current study examined the interaction between social and physiological factors for understanding body image concerns in girls during adolescence, a period of peak risk for eating disorder onset (Smink et al., 2012). Results support a moderating role of progesterone in the relationship between the social environment and body image concerns. The highest body image concerns were observed in girls with the highest progesterone levels and greatest endorsement of social pressures to adhere to

Declarations of interest

None.

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health [R01MH092377-01 (K.L.K., S.A.B), F31MH105082 (K.J.F.)]. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Drs. Ross Crosby and Chris Schatschneider for their statistical consultation.

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Interaction of hormonal and social environments in understanding body image concerns in adolescent girls

Highlights

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Descriptive analyses and Bivariate associations

Discussion

Declarations of interest

Funding

Acknowledgements

Horm. Behav.

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Behav. Brain Res.

Horm. Behav.

Body Image

Neurobiol. Stress.

Physiol. Behav.

Behav. Res. Ther.

Behav. Brain Res.

Eat. Behav.

Evol. Hum. Behav.

Body Image

Horm. Behav.

Prog. Neurobiol.

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Body Image

Eat. Behav.

Horm. Behav.

Peer-facilitated eating disorder prevention: a randomized effectiveness trial of cognitive dissonance and media advocacy

J. Counsel. Psychol.

The Michigan state university twin Registry (MSUTR): an update

Twin Res. Hum. Genet.

‘What you look like is such a big factor’: girls' own reflections about the appearance culture in an all-girls’ school

Fem. Psychol.

A three-year longitudinal study of body image, eating disturbance, and general psychological functioning in adolescent females

Eat. Disord.

Perceptions of the peer group and friendship in early adolescence

J. Early Adolesc.

Hormonal factors and disturbances in eating disorders

Curr. Psychiatr. Rep.

Ovarian hormones and binge eating in bulimia nervosa

Psychol. Med.

The reliability of a two-item scale: pearson, Cronbach, or Spearman-Brown?

Int. J. Publ. Health

Reference ranges for serum concentrations of lutropin (LH), follitropin (FSH), estradiol (E2), prolactin, progesterone, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), cortisol and ferritin in neonates, children and young adults

Clin. Chem. Lab. Med.

Progesterone turnover to its 5α-reduced metabolites in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain is essential for initiating social and affective behavior and progesterone metabolism in female rats

J. Endocrinol. Invest.

Stress, rejection, and hormones: cortisol and progesterone reactivity to laboratory speech and rejection tasks in women and men

F1000Research.

Assessment of binge eating in overweight youth using a questionnaire version of the Child Eating Disorder Examination with instructions

Int. J. Eat. Disord.

Shared risk factors for mood-, eating-, and weight-related health outcomes

Health Psychol.

Effects of body fat on weight concerns, dating, and sexual activity: a longitudinal analysis of black and white adolescent girls

Dev. Psychol.