2009 Volume 57 Issue 3 Pages 263-273
The present study focuses on the drive for thinness in adolescent males. Recently, a concern about thinness seems to be spreading even to men. The authors considered a psychological model that might establish a drive for thinness through the channel of a pros-and-cons mindset about body shape. The hypothesis was that benefits related to this mind set might, from a self-perspective, be self-affirmation, and from an other-person perspective, interpersonal relations. Adolescent males (N=224) completed a questionnaire developed to examine relations between the drive for thinness and personality traits that might affect a pros-and-cons mindset about body shape. Of the responses, 131 considered themselves to be fat. The results indicated that traits such as praise-seeking, rejection avoidance, and level of satisfaction toward one’s body were linked to a drive for thinness. Further analysis suggested that a sense of benefit for thinness from the self-perspective, such as feeling more confident after losing weight, directly affects the drive for thinness. The analysis indicated that other variables may affect this drive through the sense of benefit for thinness from the self-perspective. In order of relevance, they were (a) from self-manifestation, (b) from dissatisfaction or anxiety about oneself, and (c) from degree of obesity as viewed by oneself.
