Researchers focused on body image behavioral misperceptions (BIBM) –
when girls try to gain or lose weight to change how they look even
though there’s no medical need for them to alter their weight.
In the study of more than 6,500 teen girls, 38 percent had these
misperceptions and roughly two-thirds had tried alcohol at least
once.
When teen girls had body image issues that drove them to try to
change their weight, they were 29 percent more likely to have tried
alcohol and 22 percent more likely to be heavy drinkers than young
women without these body image problems, the study found.
“We know that using alcohol as an adolescent is associated with an
increased risk for experiencing multiple problems, including school
problems, social problems, legal problems, hangovers, illness, risky
sexual behavior, disrupted growth and development, physical and
sexual assault, alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents,
unintentional injury, memory problems, drug misuse, and death,” said
lead study author Anna Schlissel of the University of Chicago.
“We also know that heavy episodic drinking is associated with even
higher risks of health and social problems, and that the younger
people start drinking alcohol, the greater their risk for developing
substance use disorders later in life,” Schlissel added by email.
Drinking can also make body image problems or eating disorders
worse, Schlissel said.
To explore the connection between alcohol and body image behavioral
misperceptions, researchers examined survey responses collected in
2013 from female high school students, most of whom were 14 to 18
years old.
Overall, 18 percent reported episodes of heavy drinking during the
previous month, when they consumed at least five drinks in rapid
succession, researchers report in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol
and Drugs, online December 12.
Older students were more likely to report alcohol use than teens
still in ninth grade, and Hispanic girls were more likely to drink
than white girls.
Teens who reported smoking in the past month were also more likely
to drink, as were girls who became sexually active before age 13.
Students in twelfth grade and teens with a history of depression or
smoking were more likely than younger girls or non-smokers to report
heavy drinking.
Among the teens with body image issues, black girls were less likely
to have heavy drinking problems than teens in other racial and
ethnic groups.
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One limitation of the study is that the survey depends on teens to
accurately recall their drinking habits and body image issues, the
authors note. It’s also impossible to tell which started first: the
drinking or the body image issues.
The study also doesn’t prove that either problem is a cause or
effect of the other.
Another shortcoming of the study is that it didn’t distinguish
between girls trying to lose or gain weight, noted Ken Winters, a
psychology researcher at the University of Minnesota who wasn’t
involved in the study. Girls are unlikely to drink to lose weight,
he added by email.
Still, the findings add to evidence linking body image issues with
risky behaviors, said Dr. Benjamin Shain, head of child and
adolescent psychiatry at NorthShore University HealthSystem in
Chicago.
For prevention, it helps for parents to drink responsibly around
kids and to teach children about the dangers of drinking before they
reach adolescence, Shain, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by
email.
Parents should also avoid making negative comments about how their
daughters look, Shain added. Teens with eating disorders often cite
parents' negative comments as a cause, he said.
Vigilance matters, because eating disorders and alcohol abuse can
have lasting consequences.
“These include depression, suicide, osteoporosis, infections, joint
problems, diabetes, dementia, and cardiovascular disease, to name a
few,” Shain said. “Behaviors started as an adolescent tend to
continue into adulthood.”
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