Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitudes in 7- to 11-year-old girls: Testing a sociocultural model

We examined the sociocultural model of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating attitude development in young girls for the first time. According to the model, internalizing an unrealistically thin ideal body increases the risk of disordered eating via body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and depression. Girls aged 7–11 years (N = 127) completed measures of thin-ideal internalization, body dissatisfaction, dieting, depression, and disordered eating attitudes. Participants’ height and weight were measured and their body mass index calculated. Thin-ideal internalization predicted disordered eating attitudes indirectly via body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, and depression; it also predicted disordered eating attitudes directly. Path analyses showed that a revised sociocultural model fit well with the data. These data show that a sociocultural framework for understanding disordered eating and body dissatisfaction in adults is useful, with minor modifications, in understanding the development of related attitudes in young girls.

► We modelled eating attitudes and body dissatisfaction in girls aged 7–11 years.
► BMI predicted thin-ideal internalization and body dissatisfaction.
► Body dissatisfaction predicted dieting and depression.
► Dieting, depression and thin-ideal internalization predicted eating attitudes.
► This sociocultural model, not previously examined in girls, fitted the data well.