Pomichter Emily, Cepeda-Benito Antonio, Ahmadkaraji Shahrzad, DePalma John P
Department of Psychological Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2025 May 26;22(6):834. doi: 10.3390/ijerph22060834.
Body image (BI) concerns in men-spanning thinness, muscularity, and other related constructs-are increasingly being recognized for their links to depression, anxiety, and self-esteem, yet measurement approaches remain unevenly aligned.
Our objective was to map the landscape of BI instruments deployed with cisgender men and women and to examine whether thinness-, muscularity-, and non-specific self-image satisfaction measures differentially relate to key mental health outcomes.
Our eligibility criteria were peer-reviewed, quantitative studies published in English between January 2011 and December 2021. We only included studies with samples ≥30 cisgender men, psychometrically validated BI scales, results reported separately by gender, and U.S.-based investigations.
The source of evidence was a systematic search of PsycINFO.
Two reviewers double-screened titles/abstracts and full texts in EPPI-Reviewer. Data on measure orientation; validation sample characteristics; and effect sizes relating BI scores to depression, anxiety, and self-esteem were extracted. The effect sizes were transformed to and averaged across the studies.
Of the 1178 records identified, 191 U.S. studies met the inclusion criteria. Fifty-five distinct BI instruments were used; twelve appeared in six or more studies and were classified as thinness-oriented, muscularity-oriented, or non-specific. The unweighted average correlations with depression ranged from = 0.23 (muscularity) to 0.34 (non-specific), with anxiety at = 0.16-0.25 and self-esteem at = 0.20-0.57. The male samples showed greater heterogeneity of effect sizes, likely reflecting the sampling variability and the multifaceted nature of men's BI concerns.
This review confirms critical gaps in male BI measurement and interpretation. Although thinness- and muscularity-oriented scales each capture facets of men's BI, exclusive reliance on thinness measures risks overlooking leanness- and musculature-focused pathology. The greater variability of BI-mental health associations in men than women underscore the need for a diverse measurement toolkit that, at minimum, assesses thinness, muscularity, and other appearance-related constructs.
男性对身体形象（BI）的关注——涵盖瘦、肌肉量以及其他相关概念——因其与抑郁、焦虑和自尊的关联而日益受到认可，但测量方法仍未完全统一。
我们的目的是梳理用于顺性别男性和女性的BI测量工具，并研究瘦、肌肉量以及非特定的自我形象满意度测量与关键心理健康结果之间的差异关系。
我们的纳入标准为2011年1月至2021年12月间发表的英文同行评审定量研究。我们仅纳入样本量≥30名顺性别男性、经过心理测量学验证的BI量表、按性别分别报告结果且基于美国的调查研究。
证据来源为对PsycINFO的系统检索。
两名评审员在EPPI-Reviewer中对标题/摘要和全文进行双盲筛选。提取有关测量方向、验证样本特征以及将BI分数与抑郁、焦虑和自尊相关联的效应量的数据。效应量经转换后进行研究间平均。
在识别出的1178条记录中，有191项美国研究符合纳入标准。使用了55种不同的BI测量工具；其中12种出现在六项或更多研究中，并被归类为以瘦为导向、以肌肉量为导向或非特定类型。与抑郁的未加权平均相关性范围为r = 0.23（肌肉量）至0.34（非特定类型），与焦虑的相关性为r = 0.16 - 0.25，与自尊的相关性为r = 0.20 - 0.57。男性样本的效应量显示出更大的异质性，这可能反映了抽样变异性以及男性BI关注的多面性。
本综述证实了男性BI测量和解释方面的关键差距。尽管以瘦和肌肉量为导向的量表各自捕捉了男性BI的不同方面，但仅依赖瘦的测量可能会忽略以瘦和肌肉量为重点的病理情况。男性中BI与心理健康关联的变异性大于女性，这凸显了需要一个多样化的测量工具包，至少要评估瘦、肌肉量以及其他与外表相关的概念。
