Toward understanding the role of body dissatisfaction in the gender differences in depressive symptoms and disordered eating: A longitudinal study during adolescence

• We examine gender differences in depressive symptoms and disordered eating.
• Body dissatisfaction is proposed to contribute to such gender differences.
• Body dissatisfaction mediates the relation between gender and depressive symptoms.
• Body dissatisfaction mediates the relation between gender and disordered eating.
• Gender moderates the impact of body dissatisfaction on disordered eating.

This study was aimed at examining whether body dissatisfaction in early adolescence contributes to the development of gender differences in depressive symptoms and disordered eating across early to mid-adolescence, testing both a mediation hypothesis (higher levels of body dissatisfaction in girls, provided body dissatisfaction is a predictor of psychopathology beyond the effect of gender) and a moderation hypothesis (more detrimental effect of body dissatisfaction in girls). A community-based sample initially comprising 882 (49.55% female) adolescents (Mage = 12.85) was followed-up after 2 and 4 years. Multilevel models were used to analyze the data. Results supported the mediation hypothesis for depressive symptoms and disordered eating, and the moderation hypothesis for disordered eating. Whereas gender differences in depressive symptoms may be simply linked to dissimilar levels of body dissatisfaction in girls and boys, gender differences in disordered eating may arise from both dissimilar levels and effects of body dissatisfaction for each gender.