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The Body Image Approach Test (BIAT): A Potential Measure of the Behavioral Components of Body Image Disturbance in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?

ABSTRACT: A disturbed body image with fluctuating behavioral patterns of body related avoidance (BA) and body checking (BC) characterizes individuals with eating disorders (EDs) such as anorexia (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN). So far, these behavioral body image components are mostly assessed via self-report instruments thereby neglecting their behavioral and partially automatic characteristics. Therefore, behavioral measures of BA and BC are needed. The present study investigates a behavioral assessment task for BA and BC in a sample of patients with diagnosed EDs and healthy controls. The sample consisted of 40 women diagnosed with either BN (N = 19) or AN (N = 21; ED sample) and 24 non-eating disordered, healthy female controls (HC). Within the Body Image Approach Task (BIAT) participants viewed photos of their own body (self-image) and a matched control body (other-image) by zooming the photos closer toward them (image became more focused) on the screen. The BIAT yields zoom-levels recorded separately for self- relative to other-images. Further measures were attractiveness ratings of these body images as well as questionnaire measures of BA, BC, and general ED symptomatology. Results showed that despite strong body dissatisfaction and clearly negative ratings of self- relative to other-images in both EDs, no group differences were found in approach to self-images on zoom-level as measured with the BIAT. Correlational analysis in each group indicated that zoom-level was positively related to BA scores in the HC group only. Yet, stepwise regression analyses revealed that attractiveness ratings explained most of the variance accounted by BA in predicting zoom-level. In sum, the BIAT seems suitable to assess BA and self-rated body attractiveness, but only in healthy individuals with subclinical levels on these constructs. It does not seem to capture the body image satisfaction or the behavioral components of body image disturbances in AN or BN or it conflates the opposed influences of BA and BC. Further experimentation is needed to adapt measures of behavioral body image components to the processes evoked in patients with ED during confrontation with body images.

SUBMITTER: Legenbauer T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7005054 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Body Image Approach Test (BIAT): A Potential Measure of the Behavioral Components of Body Image Disturbance in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?

Legenbauer Tanja T Radix Anne Kathrin AK Naumann Eva E Blechert Jens J

Frontiers in psychology 20200131

A disturbed body image with fluctuating behavioral patterns of body related avoidance (BA) and body checking (BC) characterizes individuals with eating disorders (EDs) such as anorexia (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN). So far, these behavioral body image components are mostly assessed via self-report instruments thereby neglecting their behavioral and partially automatic characteristics. Therefore, behavioral measures of BA and BC are needed. The present study investigates a behavioral assessment ta ...[more]

PMID: 32082214

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Project description:One key symptom of anorexia nervosa (AN) is body image distortion (BID). For example, AN patients who are asked to perform body size estimation tasks tend to overestimate their body size; this is thought to indicate a distortion of the perceptive component of body image. Although BID is an important treatment objective, only few treatment approaches explicitly target body image, and even fewer target the perceptive component. Moreover, very little is known about how patients' perceptive body image changes after treatment and related weight gain. Consequently, we investigated changes of the perceptive BID in adolescent AN patients at the beginning (T1) and the end (T2) of inpatient treatment using a body size estimation task. A total of 38 AN patients performed the test for Body Image Distortion in Children and Adolescents (BID-CA) within the first 2 weeks of inpatient treatment and at the end of treatment. The results were compared to 48 healthy control (HC) participants performing the same task once. At T1, AN patients overestimated their body size more than HC, i.e., a total overestimation of 33% in AN patients vs. 11% in HC. At T2, AN patients overestimated their arm size to the same degree that they did at TI, but overestimations for the thigh and waist were reduced, and their overestimations for the waist no longer differed from the HC group. Thus, after treatment, AN patients were partly able to more realistically estimate their body size. Several factors may have influenced the observed changes in body size estimation, including task repetition, deliberate adjustment, growing into their preexisting perceptive body image through weight gain, as well as targeted and non-specific psychotherapeutic treatments. In conclusion, the perceptive BID in adolescent AN patients is persistent but also modifiable. Although diverse factors presumably play a role in changing BID, these findings suggest that AN patients may benefit from targeted treatment of BID.

Dataset Information

The Body Image Approach Test (BIAT): A Potential Measure of the Behavioral Components of Body Image Disturbance in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?

Publications

The Body Image Approach Test (BIAT): A Potential Measure of the Behavioral Components of Body Image Disturbance in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa?

Similar Datasets

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