Body image dissatisfaction and low self-esteem due to physical appeareance in students of the faculty of medicine at the university of los andes (mérida, venezuela)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/mhs.5-1.2Keywords:
Low self-esteem due to physical appearance, body image, body-image dissatisfaction, eating disordersAbstract
The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate body image dissatisfaction in relation to low self-esteem due to physical appearance in students of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela. It was a non-experimental and correlational study. The sample included 189 students (27% male and 73% female) with an average age of 19.58 ± 1.57 (men: 19.81 years of age ± 1.74 and women: 20.24 years of age ± 1.76). Participants were intentionally selected from first-year courses of the Medicine, Nursing and Nutrition programs. The Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) (Cooper and Taylor, 1987) was the instrument used to measure body image dissatisfaction and Graffar’s modified method (Méndez and De Méndez, 1994) was applied to determine the participants’ socioeconomic status. A descriptive analysis (frequency, percentages, mean) and an inferential analysis (one-way ANOVA) were applied to the data using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 9.0. One of the most important findings in this study was the determination of a statistically significant relationship between dissatisfaction and body image and between low self-esteem and gender χ2 (2, N= 189) = 9.686, p=0.008. Using ANOVA also helped determine that differences in the mean for dissatisfaction and low self-esteem levels with body image and gender are statistically significant, F= 11.236; p=0.008, F=10.23; p=0.002, respectively. Conclusions: results obtained suggest a relationship between dissatisfaction and low self-esteem due to physical appearance. Consequently, subjects reject their body image because of a distorted or undistorted perception of their physical appearance, which can possibly affect self-esteem. Moreover, it is observed that the students’ psychological health is more related to their satisfaction with their body-image than to the way their body image is perceived. Consequently, this group of participants must be analyzed regarding their self-esteem due to body image, as an expression in the institutional environment. It is also important to emphasize that gender may be a risk factor concerning eating disorders. We believe the foregoing because women showed higher dissatisfaction levels because of their physical appearance being conditioned by a higher dissatisfaction with their perceived body image, which is characterized by an overestimation of the physical dimension of their body image.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV-TR. Arlington, VA.: American Psychiatric Press.
Banfield, S. S., & McCabe, M. P. (2002). An evaluation of the construct of body image. Adolescence, 37, 373-393.
Bener, A., & Tewfik I. (2006). Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and associated psychological problems in Qatari's female population. Obesity Reviews, 7(2), 139–145. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-789X.2006.00209.x
Bonilla, P., & Martínez, L. (2001). Adolescencia y género: Imagen corporal y trastornos de la alimentación. Cuadernos Mujer Salud, 6, 156-164.
Brown, T. A., Cash, T. F., & Mikulka, P. J. (1990). Attitudinal body-image assessment: factor analysis of the Body-Self Relations Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 55,135-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.1990.9674053
Buddeberg, B., Klaghofer, F, y Reed, V. (1999). Associations between body weight, psychiatric disorders and body image in female adolescents. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 68, 325-338.
Cooper, P. y Taylor, M. (1987). The development and validation of the body shape Questionnaire. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 6, 485-494. https://doi.org/10.1002/1098-108X(198707)6:4<485::AID-EAT2260060405>3.0.CO;2-O
Davison, T. E., & McCabe, M. P. (2006). Adolescent body image and psychosocial functioning. Journal of Social Psychology, 146(1), 15-30. https://doi.org/10.3200/SOCP.146.1.15-30
Fernández, L. y Rodríguez, Y. (2003). Evaluación de los hábitos alimentarios e Imagen Corporal en Estudiantes Universitarios sin trastornos alimentarios. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 3(1), 23-33.
Furnham, A., Badmin, N., & Snead, I. (2002). Body image dissatisfaction: gender differences in eating attitudes, self-esteem, and reason for exercise. Journal of Psychology, 136(6), 581-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980209604820
López, P. J. (2004). Influencia de factores Sociodemográficos sobre la imagen corporal en adolescentes. Universidad de Los Andes. Facultad de Medicina. Escuela de Nutrición y Dietética. Manuscrito no publicado.
Méndez, H. y De Méndez, M. (1994). Sociedad y Estratificación. Método Graffar-Méndez Castellano. Venezuela: Ed. FUNDACREDESA.
Montero, P., Morales, E. y Carvajal, A. (2004). Valoración de la percepción de la imagen corporal mediante modelos anatómicos. Antropo, 8, 107-116.
Moore, D. C. (1993). Body image and eating behavior in adolescents. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 12(5), 5005. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.1993.10718343
Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic (1997). Report of WHO Consultation on obesity. Ginebra WHO, 3-5.
Ozmen, D., Ozmen, E., Ergin, D., & Cakmakci, A. (2007). The association of self-esteem, depression and body satisfaction among Turkish adolescent. Public Health, 7, 80. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-7-80
Raich, R., Torras, J. y Figueras, M. (1996). Estudio de la Imagen Corporal y su relación con el deporte en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios. Análisis y Modificación de Conducta, 22, 604-624.
Raich, R. M, Mora, M., Soler, A., Avila, C., Clos, I. y Zapater, L. (1996a). Adaptación de un instrumento de evaluación de la insatisfacción corporal. Clínica y Salud, 7, 51-66.
Strauss, R., & Pollck, H.(2003). Social Marginalization of overweight children. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 157, 746-752. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.157.8.746
Wardle, J., Williamson, S., Johnson, F., & Edwards, C. (2006). Depression in adolescent obesity: Cultural moderators of the depressive symptoms. International Journal of Obesity, 30, 634-43. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0803142
Xie, B., Liu, C., Chou, C. P., Xia, J., Spruijt-Metz, D., & Gong, J. (2003). Weight perception and psychology factors in adolescents. Journal of Adolescense Health, 33, 202-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00099-5
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
General conditions
MHSalud: Journal in Human Movement Sciences and Health by the Universidad Nacional is cover under a Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Costa Rica license.
The journal is hosted in open access repositories such as the Institutional Repository of the Universidad Nacional, the Kimuk Repository of Costa Rica and La Referencia.
The editorial source of the journal must be recognized. Use the doi identifier for this purpose.
Self-archiving policy: The journal allows the self-archiving of the articles in their peer-reviewed version, edited and approved by the Editorial Board of the Journal to be available in Open Access through the Internet. More information in the following link: https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/25815
