Relationship of young women's body appreciation with eating disorders and psychological variables

Introduction: Obesity, body image and eating disorders are particularly common among adolescent girls and young women. While negative body image is the major focus of research, it is also important from the aspect of prevention to explore the factors that influence positive attitudes towards our bodies and body appreciation. Objective: Our aim was to analyze the determinants of body appreciation in young women, including different types of eating disorders, physical activity, body mass index, various psychological characteristics, and whether there is a family history of eating disorders or obesity. Method: Participants were a sample of female university students (n = 262; mean age: 22.0 ± 2.2 years). Data were collected via an online questionnaire. Body appreciation was measured using the Body Appreciation Scale (BAS-2), supplemented by the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Life Orientation Test (LOT-R), and the “Internalization – General” subscale of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3) to measure psychological characteristics. Results: Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that self-esteem has the strongest relationship with young women’s body appreciation; sporting and optimism are also significant but to a lesser extent, while body mass index and dieting are negative predictors. Likewise, a strong susceptibility to the internalization of media content is also detrimental to body appreciation. Oral control, which can be found among the symptoms of anorexia nervosa, is a mild positive predictor of body appreciation. Conclusion: Our data highlight the importance of body appreciation in the treatment and prevention of body image and eating disorders. There is a great need for fostering positive body image and body appreciation, as the lack of acceptance of our bodies and the extreme adherence towards an overemphasized skinny body ideal can easily lead to pathological dieting.