ArticleJournal of adolescence2026
Bidirectional Associations Between Body Image Concerns and Sense of Competence and Relatedness in Students: Gender and Age Differences.
Article in Journal of adolescence, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Body image disturbance, compensatory exercise, and exercise avoidance: cross-sectional conditional process associations in university students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Bidirectional Associations Between Body Image Concerns and Sense of Competence and Relatedness in Students: Gender and Age Differences.Journal of adolescence · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionPsychological difficulties can impede the satisfaction of competence and relatedness needs, which are essential for students' well-being and academic achievement. Body image concerns are common psychological difficulties among youth. However, the relationship between body image and these fundamental needs at school remains underexplored. Therefore, the present study examined the longitudinal associations between students' body image concerns and sense of competence and relatedness, and the degree to which teachers' emotional support moderated these bidirectional associations. Gender and age differences were also investigated.
methodsA total of 2675 students (9-17 years; 41% male/56% female; 74.1% White/25.9% racialized) from 47 schools in Canada completed questionnaires on body image, sense of competence and relatedness at school, and perceived teachers' emotional support at the beginning and at the end of the same academic year.
resultsAfter controlling for potential confounding variables, body image concerns predicted a lower sense of competence over time, but the reverse association only applied for girls and older students. Body image concerns and sense of relatedness were also found to be bidirectionally associated over time with significant gender differences. Girls' body image concerns predicted a lower sense of relatedness, whereas boys' lower sense of relatedness predicted higher body image concerns over time. Teachers' support moderated some of these associations.
conclusionsThe findings suggest that body image concerns can impact students' sense of competence and relatedness, and vice versa, with significant gender differences. Teachers appear to play a protective role, especially for girls' and older students' body image.
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