An investigation of the relationship between stress and body image in Australian youth

Abstract

Adolescence and young adulthood are periods of rapid development associated with significant psychological stress. While this has been implicated in a number of mental health concerns, it has not been investigated in body image disturbance. Specifically, body dissatisfaction is reported to peak during adolescence and persist into young adulthood. Despite the inclusion of stress management training in prevention programs for body image disturbance in adolescence, limited empirical efforts have aimed at understanding this specific relationship. As such, the current research program examines the relationship between stress and body dissatisfaction in female and male adolescents and young adults. Three studies were conducted assessing the following research questions: (a) the nature and direction of the relationship between stress and body dissatisfaction, including the differential role of stressor subdomains; (b) the role of moderating variables such as gender; (c) the role of mediating influences such as the psychological constructs of self-esteem, depressive symptoms and body importance; and (d) the relevance of stress to an additional body image dimension, body change strategies to decrease body size and increase muscularity. The research program utilised multiple methodologies to explore these research questions, including cross-sectional and longitudinal self-report surveys and experimental designs. Results across all three studies supported a strong link between stress and body dissatisfaction, specifically in the peer domain, in both females and males. Longitudinal self-report data supported a predictive relationship between adolescent stress and body dissatisfaction, and found that both self-esteem and body importance mediate this link proximally and over time. Experimental investigation in young adults also revealed support for a causal effect of interpersonal (peer-related) stress on state body dissatisfaction. Specifically, stress was revealed to enhance an individual's vulnerability to body image concerns, with males reporting general body dissatisfaction under a personality-based peer rejection condition, and those who placed a low importance on the body in self-evaluations reporting increased weight dissatisfaction under an appearance-based peer rejection condition. Young adult females generally reported dissatisfaction with the body regardless of the nature of interpersonal interactions. The research program did not display a significant association between stress and body change strategies to decrease body size or increase muscularity in adolescents. Taken together, the findings of the current research program support hypotheses that stress plays a predictive role in body dissatisfaction during adolescence and young adulthood for both females and males, and that this is particularly relevant to the peer domain. Furthermore, it appears to increase vulnerability to body image concerns through its relationship with self-esteem and appearance importance. These findings hold theoretical and clinical implications for models of body image and eating disorders, and suggest stress management modules tailored to the peer domain are a warranted inclusion in prevention programs in addition to self-esteem enhancement and reducing the importance of the body in self-evaluations. Limitations and future directions of the research program are also considered.