Body Image among Special Groups: Obese Women, Female Athletes, and Lesbians

2/20

Risk factors associated with body image distress

• Age of obesity onset

  • childhood onset obesity → higher body dissatisfaction

  • currently severely obese: childhood onset = adult onset

  • formerly severely obese: childhood onset > adult onset

• Stigma, discrimination, and teasing

  • internalize social stigma and blame themselves

  • stigmatization and discrimination → negative body image, social anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, less life satisfaction

Negative behavioral consequences of obesity

• Unhealthy weight control behavior

  • tend to use unhealthy weight loss behavior (diet pills, laxatives, diuretics, self-induced vomiting)

  • weight-related teasing → unhealthy weight loss beavior

• Bing eating

  • tend to binge due to physiological factors, psychological factors, and social factors

  • teasing → binge eating

• Decline in physical activity

  • less likely to engage in physical activity and more likely to engage in sedentary activity → reciprocal causality (vicious cycle)

  • social barriers to physical activity (lack of role model, embarrassment)

Competitive sport and professional dance

• maintaining low weight to achieve optimal performance

• ultraslender body shape has advantage due to aesthetic standard of thin and petite physique

• 1/3 of female athletes in college have disordered eating

• High drive for thinness but better body image maybe because demanding pressure of sports rather than thin ideal and/or their already thin body

Competitive sport and professional dance

Stirling et al. (2012)

• Retired elite female rhythmic gymnasts experienced weight gain upon retirement (=normal weight)

• body dissatisfaction, negative body image, guilty feeling

• negative post experience with food and weight

• ongoing weight loss behaviors (food restriction, calorie counting, laxatives/diuretics use)

Recreational exercise

• exercising negatively correlated with body satisfaction as they exercise to purge calorie intake = greater appearance investment

• excessive exercise associated with greater body-image disturbance than moderate exercise

• females wit anxiety and perfectionism tend to exercise for appearance-related reasons

Lesbians and body image

• lesbians weigh more than straight women

• findings are mixed

• physical condition AND weight concerns related to self-esteem

• lesbians exercise to maintain health and improve fitness, rather than appearance-related reasons

Factors moderating lesbian body image

• level of involvement in lesbian communities

  • (social support is a protective factor)

• there may be discrepancy between what they’re supposed to believe and what they actually feel

  • Lesbians view dieting as oppressive. Lesbians that dieted in the past have lower body-esteem and higher dissatisfaction overall