Childhood beauty pageant contestants: associations with adult disordered eating and mental health.

Full Abstract

This study evaluated the association between childhood beauty pageants and adult disordered eating, body dissatisfaction, depression, and self-esteem. Eleven women who participated in childhood beauty pageants were matched on age and BMI with 11 non-participating women. Childhood pageant participants scored higher on body dissatisfaction, interpersonal distrust, and impulse dysregulation than non-participants, and showed a trend toward greater ineffectiveness. There were no significant differences between groups on measures of bulimia, body perception, depression, and self-esteem. These findings suggest childhood beauty pageant participation may influence adult body dissatisfaction, interpersonal distrust, and impulse dysregulation, but not bulimic behaviors, body perception, depression, and self-esteem.

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Author information

Author/s: Wonderlich, Anna L (AL); Ackard, Diann M (DM); Henderson, Judith B (JB);

Affiliation: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Eating disorders (Eat Disord), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: -2005 May-Jun; vol 13 (issue 3) : pp 291-301

Dates: Created 2006/07/25; Completed 2007/06/28;

PMID: 16864534, status: PubMed-not-MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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