La Trobe

Low body esteem and dietary restraint among 7-year old children: The role of perfectionism, low self-esteem, and belief in the rewards of thinness and muscularity

Download (293.32 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2025-01-29, 05:53 authored by Rachel Rodgers, Tania E Nichols, Stephanie DamianoStephanie Damiano, Eleanor WertheimEleanor Wertheim, Susan PaxtonSusan Paxton
Body image concerns and dietary restraint have been shown to emerge among young children (aged 5 to 8 years). However, to date, little is known regarding the way in which individual characteristics and endorsement of sociocultural appearance ideals are associated with these concerns and behaviors in this age group. The aim of the current study was to examine perceived rewards of thinness and muscularity as a mediator of the relationships between personality traits (perfectionism and self-esteem), and body esteem and dietary restraint among 7-year-old children. Participants were 261 children, Mage (SD) = 7.46 (0.32), assessed during interview on a range of scales measuring variables of interest. Findings revealed that, with the addition of direct pathways leading to dietary restraint, the model was a good fit to the data. Furthermore, multi-group analyses revealed no gender differences. These results highlight the role of children's individual personality characteristics as well as the degree to which they uphold thin and muscular appearance ideals in body image and eating concerns in 7 year olds. Additional efforts should be made to engage this age group with prevention resources and to target personality characteristics as well as beliefs in the rewards of appearance ideals.

Funding

This work was supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant made to Susan J. Paxton and Eleanor H. Wertheim (DP140101657).

History

Publication Date

2019-01-01

Journal

Eating Behaviors

Volume

32

Pagination

4p. (p. 65-68)

Publisher

Elsevier

ISSN

1471-0153

Rights Statement

© 2018. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Usage metrics

    Journal Articles

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC