Body image and eating disturbance in young females

Abstract

Sixty-one premenarcheal and 60 postmenarcheal female adolescents (ages 10–15) were measured for levels of body size estimation accuracy, body esteem, self-esteem, depression, eating disturbance, and teasing history regarding appearance. Age-matched subsamples of each group were also evaluated. There were few differences between groups on any of the measures, with the exception that postmenarche subjects had higher levels of eating disturbance. In general, there were significant relationships among eating disturbance, teasing history, depression, selfesteem, and body esteem. There was a trend for premenarche subjects to show stronger relationships between body esteem and other measures, whereas postmenarche females had higher correlations between size estimation indices and other variables. The findings are discussed with regard to the need to further investigate developmental issues in body image and eating disorders, particularly the salience of teasing as an etiological factor.