ArticleJournal of eating disorders2025
Losing weight, gaining confidence? actual weight does not predict body (dis)satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescents with anorexia nervosa.
Article in Journal of eating disorders, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn line with modern-day beauty ideals, many adolescent girls strive to have a slender figure. Thus, low body weight is expected to be related to greater body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls. However, for adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) this is often not the case: despite being underweight, they exhibit high levels of body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem. Negative cognitive biases for information related to one's body might explain this disconnection between body weight and body (dis)satisfaction/self-esteem in adolescents with AN. The present study explores the association between actual weight, negative cognitive biases, and body dissatisfaction/self-esteem in both adolescents with AN and adolescents without mental disorder (healthy controls; HCs).
methodsWeight was assessed as Body Mass Index Standard Deviation Score, interpretation bias for body-related information was assessed with an experimental paradigm (Scrambled Sentences Task), body dissatisfaction was measured using the Body Shape Questionnaire, and self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in n = 40 12-18-year-old adolescent girls with AN and n = 40 HCs. Hierarchical regression analyses were calculated to investigate whether weight and/or interpretation biases predicted body dissatisfaction and self-esteem.
resultsIn adolescents with AN, negative body-related interpretation bias was a significant positive predictor of body dissatisfaction and negative predictor of self-esteem while body weight did not predict any of the outcome measures. In HCs, both weight and negative interpretation bias were significant positive predictors of body dissatisfaction and significant negative predictors of self-esteem.
conclusionThe results show a disconnection between body weight and body (dis)satisfaction/self-esteem in adolescents with AN and highlight the association between negative cognitive biases for body-related information and body (dis)satisfaction/self-esteem. The negatively biased processing of information related to one's body could confirm the perception of the body as flawed and not thin enough and hinder adolescents with AN to perceive their bodies' thinness, even in the state of severe underweight. The results underline the need to target negatively biased cognitions about the body in AN treatment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.