Effects of Body Mass Index on Adolescents' Social Comparisons and Body Cathexis in Istanbul

This descriptive-comparative study was carried out to examine the relationship between the distribution of body mass index (BMI) values and scores on the Social Comparison Scale (SCS) and the Body Cathexis Scale (BCS). The study was carried out among 373 randomly selected students who were currently studying at a government private high school (N=208) or a public high school (N=165) located in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey. The students' BMI percentile ranges were compared with scores on the BCS and SCS. Data from the study were evaluated statistically by percentages, means, t-tests, tests of analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the Kruskall-Wallis test. The mean age (in years) of the participating adolescents was 16.1 +/- 0.8. In all, 61% of the participating students were male (N=227), 45% were attending 10th grade (N=169), and 56% (N=208) were attending a government private high school. The great majority (92.5%) of the adolescents had a BMI between the 5th and 95th percentiles (5th to <85th is normal; 85th to <95th is overweight or at risk for obesity). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.93 for the BCS and 0.83 for the SCS. Judging from this study, social comparison and satisfaction with one's body are not related to BMI among Turkish adolescents. Also according to this study, female Turkish adolescents are more satisfied with their body image than are their male counterparts.