The relation between body-image dissatisfaction levels and eating behaviors from the perspective of male femininity

Abstract

　This study investigated how body image dissatisfaction affects abnormal eating behaviors among male undergraduate students, using femininity as the key variable. Male undergraduate students (n = 184) were divided into a high-femininity group (n = 97) and a low-femininity group (n = 87). The relevance of a model presuming a process similar to the influence of body image dissatisfaction on abnormal eating behaviors, which has been demonstrated previously among female undergraduate students, was assessed in both groups. Path analysis with structural equation modeling confirmed that model fit was high in the high-femininity group, but low in the low-femininity group. In the latter, the feeling of dissatisfaction with the appraisal of body image by others suggests that the process involved was not associated with uncontrollable food intake, and thus differed from the pattern observed in the high-femininity group and in previous studies. This suggests that the psychological process by which abnormal eating behavior manifests is similar between women and highly feminine men.