Muscle dysmorphia from an addictive perspective: Validation of the Addiction to Body Image Inventory (ABII)

Muscle dysmorphia (MD) is a disorder affecting mainly men and is characterized by significant dissatisfaction with muscles. The idea that MD could represent an addiction has been theoretically discussed, but no empirical data are available. Based on Foster et al. (2015) framework, the Addiction to Body Image Inventory (ABII) was developed. This study aims to validate the ABII and to evaluate its capacity to capture MD severity.

A first community sample of 466 participants was recruited and completed the ABII and questionnaires on MD and body esteem. A second sample of 47 men at risk of MD was recruited mostly in gyms and completed the ABII and questionnaires on MD, eating and psychological symptoms.

With the community sample, the results showed that the ABII had a valid factorial structure, good internal consistency, and good convergent validity. With the sample of men at risk of MD, the results showed that the ABII had good convergent validity with MD and eating symptoms but not with psychological symptoms. The results of a regression model showed that the ABII explained 12% of the MD variance.

This study brings the first measure of addiction to body image and suggests that MD must be understood as a complex phenomenon including eating symptoms and addictive tendencies.