Poster #183 - Boys and Girls are Different: The Influence of Under/Over Weight on Internalizing Problems in Adolescence

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Sex, Gender

Integrative Statement

As there is an overall increased emphasis on thinness in Korea, adolescents are also constantly exposed to the idea of the ideal body image. Repeated exposure to the thin body images leads to adolescents’ internalization of the thin ideal (Jones et al., 2004; Thompson & Stice, 2001), causing them to put an effort to meet these standards. For example, among middle and high school students, 13.6% of boys and 23.0% of girls responded that they have engaged in unhealthy weight-loss behaviors including taking a diet pill and vomiting after meals (Ministry of Education et al., 2017). Given these circumstances, it can be assumed that adolescents’ body mass index (BMI) has an effect on their internalizing problem (Judge & Jahns, 2007; Ter Borgt et al., 2006). The research showed that BMI affected internalizing problems indirectly rather than directly via self-esteem and peer relationships (French et al., 1995; Park, 2013; Rancourt & Prinstein, 2009). Since there were gender differences in this relationship (Jeong et al., 2014; Merten et al., 2008), the present study aimed to examine the structural relationship between BMI, self-esteem, peer relationship and internalizing problem in adolescence, while focusing on gender differences.
For this purpose, the data were retrieved from the 6th wave of Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey conducted by National Youth Policy Institute. A total of 1,946 adolescents of 16-year-old (1,024 boys and 922 girls) participated in this study, and were classified as standard, underweight, and overweight groups by BMI criteria of Korean growth standards. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to identify the relationship among the variables, and multiple-group analysis (MGA) was used to compare gender differences. In addition, bootstrapping method was conducted to test the mediation effects of self-esteem and peer relationship in the influence of BMI on internalizing problems. Stata 13.0 and MPLUS 6.0 were both used for the data analysis.
The major findings were as follows. First, the influence of being overweight had significant effects on internalizing problems mediated only by self-esteem. Second, a multiple-group analysis revealed gender differences in the structural relationship between BMI, self-esteem, peer relationship and internalizing problems. Specifically, for boys, being both overweight and underweight had significant effects on internalizing problems, mediated only by self-esteem. In contrast, for girls, being overweight was the only factor which impacted internalizing problems, mediated by peer relationship, and the influence of peer relationship on internalizing problems was mediated by self-esteem. Finally, self-esteem for boys and peer relationship for girls fully mediated the effect of BMI on internalizing problems.
This study demonstrated the gender differences in the effect of BMI on internalizing problems. The findings indicated the effect of being underweight on internalizing problems only for boys, suggesting that ideal body image differed according to gender. Moreover, it showed that BMI affected internalizing problems through self-esteem for boys but through peer relationship for girls, thus proposing the need for more studies considering that there were gender differences in the effect of physical features on their psycho-social state.

Authors

• Soo jung Kim, Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University
  Presenting Author

• Heejung Nam, Department of Child Development and Family Studies, Seoul National University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hye Jun Park, Seoul National University
  Non-Presenting Author