Self-image with regard to weight in a group of adolescent girls

Abstract

The explanatory models generally accepted at the present time concerning eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, are the multidimensional ones. Different factors have been put forward such as predisposing factors, facilitators, triggering and sustaining factors of Anorexia nervosa. Facilitators and triggering factors include those with a sociocultural origin such as social pressure to have a certain look, closely related to a low body weight. This study aims to discover the self-image of a group of female teenagers with respect to their weight, as well as to ascertain which attitudes derive from self-image. To this end a survey was conducted in two high schools in Tudela in June 1998. A hundred and thirty teenagers from 15 to 17 years old attending compulsory secondary education were surveyed. The results indicate that girls from this group have a negative self-image with respect to their body weight; most of them think they should be thinner and that is the reason why they change their behaviour in order to lose weight.