Abstract

Adolescents are believed to be susceptible to eating disorders (EDs) due to their serious fear of appearance evaluation from society. Related to this, low body-esteem has been found to be common among individuals with EDs. The present study mainly aimed to explore how emotional intelligence (EI), gender, and body size influence the relationship between body-esteem and EDs risk among adolescents. 128 middle school students classified as obese and 128 age-and gender-matched normal weight controls were included. All participants were asked to fill out self-report measures of body-esteem, EI, and EDs risk. The results showed that (1) both gender and body size directly influenced body-esteem and EDs risk; (2) EI acted as a moderator between body-esteem and EDs risk; and (3) both gender and body size interacted with EI and body-esteem to influence EDs risk. These findings contribute to our understanding of boundary conditions by which low body-esteem leads to EDs among adolescents, and help us to correspondingly conduct targeted intervention of adolescents’ EDs.

摘要

青少年被认为容易患上饮食失调症（EDs），因为他们严重害怕社会对外表的评价。与此相关的是，已发现低身体自尊在 ED 患者中很常见。本研究主要旨在探讨情商 (EI)、性别和体型如何影响青少年身体自尊与 EDs 风险之间的关系。包括 128 名肥胖中学生和 128 名年龄和性别匹配的正常体重对照组。所有参与者都被要求填写关于身体自尊、EI 和 ED 风险的自我报告措施。结果表明（1）性别和体型直接影响身体自尊和EDs风险；(2) EI 在身体自尊和 EDs 风险之间起调节作用；(3) 性别和体型都与 EI 和身体自尊相互作用以影响 ED 风险。这些发现有助于我们了解身体自尊心低下导致青少年EDs的边界条件，并有助于我们相应地对青少年EDs进行有针对性的干预。