Influencias socioculturales y conductas de modificación del cuerpo en adolescentes varones

Abstract

Sociocultural influences that disseminate an ideal of a beauty body can promote body change behaviors, such as diet to lose weight. The thesis presented here aimed to compile three articles related to this topic. The goal of the first article was the validation of the Sociocultural Attitudes Toward Appearance Questionnaire - 3 (SATAQ-3) (Thompson, van den Berg, Roehrig, Guarda, & Heinberg, 2004). Specifically, the study had two specific aims. The first one was to assess the factorial structure of the SATAQ-3 with Spanish adolescents of both sexes. The second aim was to evaluate the measurement invariance of the instrument for boys and girls of different grade level, which allows us to evaluate the possibility of using the same instrument in different age groups and sex without making specific adaptations. It is concluded that the Spanish version of the SATAQ-3 is valid for use in samples of Spanish adolescents of both sexes and different ages. The aim of the second article was to explore the effect of perceived weight status on dieting and unhealthy weight control behaviors among Spanish male adolescents, considering their body weight status. It was found that adolescents tended to be inaccurate in estimating their body weight status. Furthermore, those with overweight, obesity, or those who perceived as such, were the most likely to be engaged in dieting and unhealthy weight control behaviors. We conclude that it is important to promote healthy eating patterns among adolescents. Also, it is recommended that future studies in Spain consider social norms related to body weight, which can influence the perception of the body. Finally, the aim of the third article was to examine the association between sociocultural influences and body change behaviors among Spanish male adolescents of different body weight status. We found that underweight adolescents were more likely to report weight gain behaviors, compare to the other weight status groups. By contrast, overweight adolescents were more likely to report weight control behaviors, both healthy (e. g. eating more fruits and vegetables) and unhealthy (e. g. skipping meals), and scored the most in general internalization and sociocultural pressures, compared to the other weight status groups. We conclude that our results contribute to the sparse literature on the subject. Furthermore, the results reported by overweight adolescents and the results of previous literature, suggest that obesity prevention campaigns that promote weight loss, but may inadvertently promote the stigmatization of obesity, along with the stigma today's society makes of obesity, could be promoting both healthy and unhealthy weight control behaviors. Therefore, our results support the idea that obesity prevention campaigns should focus more on overall health and not just in body weight (Sánchez-Carracedo, Neumark-Sztainer, et al, 2012;. & Smyth Vartanian , 2013).

Date of Award	26 Nov 2014
Original language	Spanish
Supervisor	David Sánchez-Carracedo (Director)