Carleton University Department of Psychology, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Centre for Healthy Active Living, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2021;42(8):631-636. doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000945.
Research on body esteem (weight and appearance esteem) and weight suggests that having a positive body esteem may be associated with more stable weight trajectories during adolescence, and adolescents with higher weight report lower levels of body esteem. However, bidirectional relationships between body esteem and weight have not yet been examined. This 3-year longitudinal study examined (1) bidirectional relationships between body esteem and body mass index (BMI) and (2) how BMI and body esteem changed together throughout adolescence.
Participants (N = 1163 adolescents, at time 1 [T1] baseline; 60.3% female) from a school-based community sample completed surveys approximately annually for 3 years.
Latent growth modeling revealed that (a) among boys and girls, appearance and weight esteem scores decreased over time, (b) higher initial BMI scores were associated with slower decreases in appearance esteem over time. However, evidence for bidirectionality was not found, in which baseline appearance and weight esteem did not predict changes in BMI over time and vice versa.
Results suggest that changes in BMI and body esteem are co-occurring (rather than predictive) throughout adolescence. The decreasing trajectory of body esteem over time suggests the need for prevention efforts to improve body esteem throughout adolescence.
有关身体自尊（体重和外貌自尊）和体重的研究表明，拥有积极的身体自尊可能与青少年时期更稳定的体重轨迹相关，而体重较高的青少年报告的身体自尊水平较低。然而，身体自尊和体重之间的双向关系尚未得到检验。本为期 3 年的纵向研究考察了（1）身体自尊和体重指数（BMI）之间的双向关系，以及（2）BMI 和身体自尊在整个青春期是如何共同变化的。
来自基于学校的社区样本的参与者（N = 1163 名青少年，在第 1 次（T1）基线时；60.3%为女性）大约每年完成一次调查，为期 3 年。
潜在增长模型显示：（a）在男孩和女孩中，外貌和体重自尊得分随时间推移而下降；（b）较高的初始 BMI 分数与随时间推移外貌自尊下降速度较慢有关。然而，没有发现双向关系的证据，即基线外貌和体重自尊并不能预测 BMI 在随时间的变化，反之亦然。
研究结果表明，BMI 和身体自尊的变化在整个青春期是同时发生的（而不是预测性的）。随着时间的推移，身体自尊的下降轨迹表明需要在整个青春期开展预防工作来提高身体自尊。
