Female intrasexual competitiveness interacts with body mass index to predict willingness to use a risky diet pill

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Hillary Brennan¹  Steven Arnocky¹  Brittany Denomme¹  Adam C. Davis² 

[1] Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada;Department of Social Sciences, School of Access, Language, and Preparatory Studies, Canadore College, North Bay, ON, Canada;

关键词: intrasexual competition;    appearance enhancement effort;    weight loss;    eating disorders;    dieting;    diet pill;    weight control;    female competition;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1167115

 received in 2023-03-10, accepted in 2023-05-11,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionPrevious research has highlighted the putative role of intrasexual competition (IC) in predicting women’s body dissatisfaction, weight loss effort, and, at its extreme, eating disorders. However, extant research reporting on these links is limited by its exclusion of potential confounds, including psychopathologies such as depression. Moreover, it is presently unclear whether women higher in body mass index (BMI) may be more prone to the influence of IC in taking dieting risks.MethodsTo address these gaps in the literature, 189 young adult women completed measures of IC, depressive symptoms, willingness to use a risky diet pill, and had their height and weight measured.ResultsResults showed that IC interacted with BMI to predict willingness to use a risky diet pill, such that women high in both IC and BMI were most likely to take the risky diet pill. Further exploratory analyses considering potential directional links between BMI and depression supported mediating roles of depression (from BMI) and BMI (from depression) in predicting willingness to use a risky diet pill.DiscussionResults suggest that links between IC and dieting risks may be moderated by women’s BMI, and that these links hold when considering depressive symptoms. Future longitudinal research would benefit from a better understanding of the potential directional links between BMI, depression, and diet pill use.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Arnocky, Brennan, Denomme and Davis.