Reflections on the mirror: associations among body image rumination, sleep quality, and self-reported physical health

Poor body image, a common occurrence across the lifespan, has been linked to poor physical health. Rumination, or perseverative thinking about negative events that have already happened, has also been tied to poor health. Thus, body image rumination, or perseverative thinking about negative body image-related events specifically, may also be linked to poor health. However, this potential link remains unexamined. Moreover, as sleep may be disrupted by both poor body image and rumination, poor sleep quality may mediate this link. To test this, undergraduate and community (Prolific) participants (N = 611, age M = 28.01, SD = 13.64) completed online questionnaires. As expected, body image rumination predicted poorer self-rated general health (b = -0.22, r² = 0.14) and physical functioning (b = -0.28, r² = 0.10), and those relationships were mediated by poor sleep quality, general health indirect effect -0.04 (SE = 0.14), 99%CI [-0.082, -0.010], physical functioning indirect effect, -0.04 (SE = 0.14), 99%CI [-0.083, -0.010], even when controlling for BMI, gender, and sample. This study begins to fill the gap in literature regarding body image rumination and physical health and identifies sleep as a potential mechanism in this relationship.