WHAT CONTRIBUTES TO PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AMONG ADOLESCENTS?

Living costs for people with increased body mass index (BMI) are significant, from psychic (discontents) through health (the cost of treating diseases caused by increased weight) and economic (adaptation of space, job absenteeism or lower labour productivity). The aim of this study was to examine the differences between young girls with different BMI and physical self-concept in physical activity and dieting. This study also investigated the contributions of BMI, physical activity and dieting on the body dissatisfaction. Socio-cultural model of body dissatisfaction assumes that the deviation of BMI from the thin-ideal will lead to dieting, but it also assumes that internalizing the athletic-ideal will lead to increased physical activity in order to get closer to the ideal body shape. This study included 306 first and third grades female high school students in Nasice. Four groups were compared: a) lower BMI and lower physical self-concept (n=41), b) lower BMI and higher physical self-concept (n=66), c) higher BMI and lower physical self-concept (n=66) and d) higher BMI and higher physical self-concept (n=44). Four groups do not differ in physical activity (F-3,F-213 =1.34; p> 0.10), but differ in the dieting (F-3,F-213=12.01; p< 0.001). Groups with higher BMI and lower physical self-concept diet significantly more than girls from the two groups with a lower BMI. The results have shown that BMI, physical activity and dieting explain 52% of variance of body dissatisfaction. Dieting, as the most important predictor, explained 39.4%, while BMI explained 11%, and physical activity about 2% of the variance of body dissatisfaction. The results suggest internalizing the thin-ideal and dieting as a strategy to dismiss body dissatisfaction. Absence of differences in the physical activity among groups, as well as a small contribution of physical activity in explaining body dissatisfaction, indicates the need to promote the importance of physical activity as a healthy strategy to regulate BMI.