The role of global negative self-evaluations in the influence of body weight on weight and eating concerns.

The aim of this study was to test a model based on the assumption that a social comparison-process of body mass index could lead to weight and eating concerns by lowering self-evaluation. Three hundred and ninety-five girls from five age cohorts (in grades five through nine at the time of data collection) participated in a questionnaire-based study. Support for a model where global negative self-evaluations played a mediating role was found among the oldest girls who perceived slimness norms among their peers. Among girls not perceiving a norm of thinness, and among younger girls perceiving such a norm, the model found no support. The proposed model gives an explanation of how the dynamic process of social norms of thinness, body weight and self-evaluation, can cause some girls to become concerned about their body weight.