What are you losing it for? Weight suppression motivations in undergraduates

Abstract

Purpose: Accumulating evidence suggests weight suppression (WS) is related to disordered eating and eating disorder (ED) risk in non-clinical samples; however, research to-date has not examined the intentionality of, or motivations for, WS. The purpose of this study was to: (1) qualitatively assess WS motivation in undergraduates, and (2) explore differences in body image and eating behaviors across motivation categories. Methods: In the first study, responses from 192 undergraduates were evaluated using inductive content analysis; four primary motivation categories emerged: appearance, functional, sports/military, and unintentional. In a second study, 1033 undergraduates indicated their primary WS motivation, if applicable, and completed body image and eating behavior measures. Separate analyses were run by gender; covariates included current body mass index (BMI) and WS. Results: Differences in body image and eating behaviors emerged across motivation categories for both men (p < 0.001) and women (p < 0.001). Appearance-motivated WS in men, and appearance and sports/military-motivated WS in women, were related to greater body dissatisfaction, restraint, thin-ideal internalization, and ED risk. Undergraduates with intentional WS demonstrated higher body dissatisfaction and eating pathology than undergraduates with unintentional or no WS (all ps < 0.05). Conclusions: Assessing weight history and WS motivations could be a brief, low-cost intervention to improve identification of undergraduates at greatest risk for EDs. This information could be integrated into campus marketing campaigns promoting wellness. Level of evidence: Cross-sectional descriptive study, Level V.