Body Image Change and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Gender differences in adolescent depressive symptoms are substantially reduced when body image is statistically controlled. The current investigation examines the temporal association (13-month time lag) between body image and depressive symptoms in an ethnically diverse sample of male and female adolescents. It was anticipated that body image would have a stronger impact on the depressive symptoms of girls than of boys and that African Americans would be less likely than the other groups to exhibit increased depressive symptomatology as a function of a change toward a more negative body image. Findings showed that girls were more influenced by change in body image than boys, but our assumption that African American girls would be least affected by body image changes was strongly disconfirmed. Relative to girls from other race/ethnicity groups, African American girls experienced a steeper increase in psychological distress as body image declined.