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Cited by 637Eating Disorders and BehaviorsNutrition, Health and Food BehaviorObesity, Physical Activity, Diet

Weight status and body image perceptions in adolescents: current perspectives.

Open access
Reel, Justine, Voelker, Dana, Greenleaf, Christy·2015·Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics
DOI 10.2147/ahmt.s68344PMC PMC4554432
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Abstract

Adolescence represents a pivotal stage in the development of positive or negative body image. Many influences exist during the teen years including transitions (eg, puberty) that affect one's body shape, weight status, and appearance. Weight status exists along a spectrum between being obese (ie, where one's body weight is in the 95th percentile for age and gender) to being underweight. Salient influences on body image include the media, which can target adolescents, and peers who help shape beliefs about the perceived body ideal. Internalization of and pressures to conform to these socially prescribed body ideals help to explain associations between weight status and body image. The concepts of fat talk and weight-related bullying during adolescence greatly contribute to an overemphasis on body weight and appearance as well as the development of negative body perceptions and dissatisfaction surrounding specific body parts. This article provides an overview of the significance of adolescent development in shaping body image, the relationship between body image and adolescent weight status, and the consequences of having a negative body image during adolescence (ie, disordered eating, eating disorders, and dysfunctional exercise). Practical implications for promoting a healthy weight status and positive body image among adolescents will be discussed.

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  • Body image is the most salient and consistent predictor of eating disorder symptomatology.

    “Body image, a multidimensional psychological construct encompassing how we think, feel and act towards our bodies—has been recognised as the most salient and consistent predictor of eating disorder symptomatology [9, 25, 26].”

    From The social media diet: A scoping review to investigate the association between social media, body image and eating disorders amongst young people (2023) · cites this paper as [9]

    The “Eating disorders and dysfunctional exercise” section says body dissatisfaction is consistently the strongest predictor of disordered eating behaviors and clinical eating disorders among adolescent samples, compared with other psychosocial variables. The citing sentence broadens that finding from body dissatisfaction to body image as a whole and does not retain the adolescent-population qualifier. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 62

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Reel, J., Voelker, D., & Greenleaf, C.
Affiliations
  • University of North Carolina Wilmington (US)
  • West Virginia University (US)
  • University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (US)
Corresponding author
Voelker, Dana
ORCID
Venue
Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2015-08
Volume
6
Pages
149
ISSN
1179-318X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2147/ahmt.s68344
PMC
PMC4554432
OpenAlex
W1827313674
Cited by
637
References
11
Citations by year
2026: 39 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 84 · 2023: 80 · 2022: 81 · 2021: 74 · 2020: 57 · 2019: 57 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 15
FWCI
4.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Adolescent Health Medicine and Therapeutics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Dove Medical Press (Taylor and Francis Group) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
Keywords
body image, weight status, adolescents, obesity, underweight, puberty, media influence, peer influence, body ideals, fat talk, disordered eating, eating disorders, body dissatisfaction

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