Quittkat Hannah L, Hartmann Andrea S, Düsing Rainer, Buhlmann Ulrike, Vocks Silja
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany.
Department of Research Methodology, Diagnostics & Evaluation, Institute of Psychology, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany.
Front Psychiatry. 2019 Dec 17;10:864. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00864. eCollection 2019.
Body image disturbance is associated with several mental disorders. Previous research on body image has focused mostly on women, largely neglecting body image in men. Moreover, only a small number of studies have conducted gender comparisons of body image over the lifespan and included participants aged 50 years and older. With regard to measurement, body image has often been assessed only in terms of body dissatisfaction, disregarding further aspects such as body appreciation or the importance of appearance. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore different aspects of body image in the general German-speaking population and to compare men and women of various ages. Participants completed an online survey comprising questionnaires about body image. Body dissatisfaction, importance of appearance, the number of hours per day participants would invest and the number of years they would sacrifice to achieve their ideal appearance, and body appreciation were assessed and analyzed with respect to gender and age differences. We hypothesized that body dissatisfaction and importance of appearance would be higher in women than in men, that body dissatisfaction would remain stable across age in women, and that importance of appearance would be lower in older women compared to younger women. Body appreciation was predicted to be higher in men than in women. General and generalized linear models were used to examine the impact of age and gender. In line with our hypotheses, body dissatisfaction was higher in women than in men and was unaffected by age in women, and importance of appearance was higher in women than in men. However, only in men did age predict a lower level of the importance of appearance. Compared to men, women stated that they would invest more hours of their lives to achieve their ideal appearance. For both genders, age was a predictor of the number of years participants would sacrifice to achieve their ideal appearance. Contrary to our assumption, body appreciation improved and was higher in women across all ages than in men. The results seem to suggest that men's and women's body image are dissimilar and appear to vary across different ages.
身体意象障碍与多种精神障碍相关。以往关于身体意象的研究大多集中在女性身上，很大程度上忽视了男性的身体意象。此外，只有少数研究对不同年龄段的身体意象进行了性别比较，且纳入的参与者年龄在50岁及以上。在测量方面，身体意象通常仅根据身体不满意程度进行评估，而忽略了诸如身体欣赏或外表重要性等其他方面。这项横断面研究的目的是探讨德语区普通人群身体意象的不同方面，并比较不同年龄段的男性和女性。参与者完成了一项在线调查，其中包括有关身体意象的问卷。对身体不满意程度、外表的重要性、参与者为实现理想外表每天愿意投入的小时数以及愿意牺牲的年数，以及身体欣赏程度进行了评估，并就性别和年龄差异进行了分析。我们假设，女性的身体不满意程度和外表重要性高于男性，女性的身体不满意程度在各年龄段保持稳定，且老年女性的外表重要性低于年轻女性。预计男性的身体欣赏程度高于女性。使用一般线性模型和广义线性模型来检验年龄和性别的影响。与我们的假设一致，女性的身体不满意程度高于男性，且不受年龄影响，女性的外表重要性高于男性。然而，只有男性的年龄能预测外表重要性较低的水平。与男性相比，女性表示她们会投入更多生命时间来实现理想外表。对于两性来说，年龄都是参与者为实现理想外表愿意牺牲的年数的一个预测因素。与我们的假设相反，身体欣赏程度有所提高，且在所有年龄段中女性都高于男性。结果似乎表明，男性和女性的身体意象不同，且在不同年龄阶段似乎有所变化。
