CONTEXT: Perception of one's physical appearance is important in the development of the concept of body image. Desire to achieve the unrealistic image of 'physical perfection' often make adolescents feel discontented; thus leading to mental health problems. AIMS: To assess body image perception (BIP) and its relationship with mental health of secondary school adolescents in Benin City, Nigeria. SETTINGS AND DESIGNS: The study was cross-sectional and descriptive, conducted in senior secondary schools in Benin City. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Six hundred randomly selected subjects completed the 28-item General Health Questionnaire, the appearance evaluation (AE) and body areas satisfaction (BAS) subscales of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ), and a sociodemographic data collection sheet. Cross tabulation of categorical variables and correlation analysis was performed by means of SPSS version 19.0, with level of significance set atP= 0.05. RESULTS: Two hundred and twenty three (36.7%) and 46.2% of the respondents were dissatisfied with their appearance and discrete aspects of their bodies, respectively. The prevalence of probable psychiatric morbidity was 35.4%. AE and BAS subscales of the MBSRQ had significant but weak negative correlation with psychiatric morbidity (r = -0.195,P= 0.000; r = -0.097,P= 0.018, respectively). CONCLUSION: BIP was significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity. Subjects who were less satisfied with their general appearance and discrete aspects of their body screened positive for general psychiatric morbidity.
CONTEXT: Perception of one's physical appearance is important in the development of the concept of body image. Desire to achieve the unrealistic image of 'physical perfection' often make adolescents feel discontented; thus leading to mental health problems. AIMS: To assess body image perception (BIP) and its relationship with mental health of secondary school adolescents in Benin City, Nigeria. SETTINGS AND DESIGNS: The study was cross-sectional and descriptive, conducted in senior secondary schools in Benin City. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Six hundred randomly selected subjects completed the 28-item General Health Questionnaire, the appearance evaluation (AE) and body areas satisfaction (BAS) subscales of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ), and a sociodemographic data collection sheet. Cross tabulation of categorical variables and correlation analysis was performed by means of SPSS version 19.0, with level of significance set atP= 0.05. RESULTS: Two hundred and twenty three (36.7%) and 46.2% of the respondents were dissatisfied with their appearance and discrete aspects of their bodies, respectively. The prevalence of probable psychiatric morbidity was 35.4%. AE and BAS subscales of the MBSRQ had significant but weak negative correlation with psychiatric morbidity (r = -0.195,P= 0.000; r = -0.097,P= 0.018, respectively). CONCLUSION: BIP was significantly associated with psychiatric morbidity. Subjects who were less satisfied with their general appearance and discrete aspects of their body screened positive for general psychiatric morbidity.