Dataset Information

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.

Project description:Body image disturbance has been highlighted as a common characteristic within the development and maintenance of clinical eating disorders (EDs), represented by alterations in an individual's bodily experience. However, whilst the perceptual stability of the sense of body ownership has been investigated in ED patients, the stability of the sense of body agency in those with ED is yet to be examined. Therefore, body ownership and body agency were investigated using the moving rubber hand illusion, alongside measures of explicit and implicit body satisfaction. Furthermore, with evidence demonstrating a direct link between perceptual and cognitive-affective components of body image in the healthy population, the relationship between measures of body perception and body satisfaction was investigated. Results showed that both ED and healthy individuals displayed a similar subjective experience of illusory ownership and agency towards the fake hand, following voluntary movement. However, whilst both groups initially overestimated their own hand width prior to the illusion, the ED group displayed a significant reduction in hand size estimation following the illusion, which was not matched to the same degree in healthy individuals. In addition, ED individuals displayed a significantly lower body satisfaction compared with healthy females, on both an explicit and implicit level. Such implicit outcomes were shown to be driven specifically by a weaker association between the self and attractiveness. Finally, a significant relationship was observed between specific perceptual measures and implicit body satisfaction, which highlights the important link between perceptual and cognitive-affective components of one's body image. Together, such findings provide a useful foundation for further research to study the conditions in which these two components relate with regard to body image and its disturbance, particularly in relation to the prognosis and treatment of EDs.

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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