Why do young women diet? The roles of body fat, body perception, and body ideal

To assess the relative roles of body fat, body perception, and body ideals as motivations for dieting in college women. We compared 45 college women who reported having dieted with 32 who had not, using a novel computerized test of body image called the somatomorphic matrix. As expected, the differe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe journal of clinical psychiatry Vol. 62; no. 8; p. 609
Main Authors Gruber, A J, Pope, Jr, H G, Lalonde, J K, Hudson, J I
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.08.2001
Subjects
Adipose Tissue - anatomy & histology
Adolescent
Adult
Body Composition
Body Image
Diet, Reducing - methods
Diet, Reducing - psychology
Esthetics - psychology
Female
Humans
Motivation
Self Concept
Somatotypes - psychology
Students - psychology
Universities
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Summary:To assess the relative roles of body fat, body perception, and body ideals as motivations for dieting in college women. We compared 45 college women who reported having dieted with 32 who had not, using a novel computerized test of body image called the somatomorphic matrix. As expected, the difference in body fat between subjects' "perceived body" and "ideal body" was significantly greater in dieters than in nondieters (p < .001). Remarkably, however, this difference remained highly significant even after adjusting for the subjects' actual measured body fat (p = .002). Further analysis revealed that this difference persisted, not because dieters had unrealistic ideals of thinness, but because they had distorted perceptions of their fatness. Distorted body image perception, a potentially treatable condition, may play an unexpectedly large role in motivating young women to diet.
ISSN:0160-6689
DOI:10.4088/JCP.v62n0806