The influence of social anxiety on the body checking behaviors of female college students

• We tested path models of the relationship between social anxiety and body checking.
• Social physique anxiety did not mediate the body checking cognitions–behavior link.
• An expanded model that included eating pathology and clinical impairment fit well.
• Social physique anxiety predicts body checking which predicts clinical impairment.
• Social physique and social appearance anxiety may be redundant constructs.

Social anxiety and eating pathology frequently co-occur. However, there is limited research examining the relationship between anxiety and body checking, aside from one study in which social physique anxiety partially mediated the relationship between body checking cognitions and body checking behavior (Haase, Mountford, & Waller, 2007). In an independent sample of 567 college women, we tested the fit of Haase and colleagues’ foundational model but did not find evidence of mediation. Thus we tested the fit of an expanded path model that included eating pathology and clinical impairment. In the best-fitting path model (CFI = .991; RMSEA = .083) eating pathology and social physique anxiety positively predicted body checking, and body checking positively predicted clinical impairment. Therefore, women who endorse social physique anxiety may be more likely to engage in body checking behaviors and experience impaired psychosocial functioning.