Abstract
Drive for thinness in adolescents is associated with sense of merit or demerit about current own body shape and social comparison with body shape of his/her family members, resulting in future risk of eating disorder. The present study investigated the sexual difference and developmental change on drive for thinness and the model to account for drive for thinness. Male and female undergraduates (n = 243) and senior high school students (n = 221) completed a questionnaire consisting of ‘scale of drive for thinness’, ‘merit or demerit about own body inventory’, ‘social comparison with body shape of his/her family members and ‘the degree of obesity of his/her family members’. The results showed that females and undergraduates had significantly stronger drive for thinness than males and high school students respectively. By covariance structure analysis, sense of merit about current own body shape showed a strong influence on drive for thinness among all groups, on the other hand social comparison with body shape of his/her family and the cognitive appraisal of obesity of his/her family members showed weak influence among all groups. These results suggest that cognitive appraisal of own body shape is an important variable that affect drive for thinness, Further empirical research should be needed.
