The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the role of perceived body importance in eating behavior model and to cross-validate the effect in adolescent samples. Based on the Tripartite Influence Model (Keery, van den Berg, & Thompson, 2004), ‘thin-ideal internalization’ compete with ‘the perceived body importance’.
Female undergraduate (N = 731) and high school students (N = 419) participated in this study. Sociocultural influence, body comparison, thin-ideal internalization, perceived body importance, body dissatisfaction, restrained eating, and bulimia behaviors were assessed. All analyses were conducted for descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling.
The results suggest that perceived body importance influence on body dissatisfaction and restrained eating more significantly and directly than does thin-ideal internalization. In addition, a sample of adolescent girls indicated no significant effect of body comparison on perceived body importance and body dissatisfaction.
