Association Between Body Image and Mental Health in Adolescents: A Social Issue

The construct of esthetic beauty is culturally and socially determined and widely disseminated by the media. The body image dissatisfaction (BID) is considered a public health problem, it is an important risk factor for disorders related to mental health, which is highly prevalent in adolescents and has an impact on social behavior. We aimed to evaluate the possible association between BID and the mental health aspects of depression and risk of eating disorders and identify the prevalence in adolescent boys and girls. The sample consisted of 308 adolescent students: 167 girls (54.2%) and 141 boys (45.8%). BID was identified by the silhouette scale. The Childhood Depression Scale (CDS) and Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) were used to assess MH. The chi-squared contingency test showed an association between body image and mental health variables in both sexes. Results: 70.1% of the girls and 76.6% of the boys exhibited BID. The girls demonstrated a significant association between body image and depressive symptoms (X(1) = 8.523; p = 0.004) and the risk of ED (X(1) = 14.281; p = 0.000). However, the boys exhibited no interactions between body image and mental health-related factors. Although BID was high in adolescents of both sexes, it may be a marker for depression and eating disorders in girls.