Academic Resilience in Contexts of Inequality: Motivational and Self-Efficacy Profiles of Disadvantaged High Achievers.

Negative appraisals of one's body, or body dissatisfaction, is associated with poorer mental health and increased negative health behaviors and is a well‐established risk factor for eating disorders (McLean and Paxton ). Contradictory to the historical perception that eating disorders are “female issues,” eating disorder rates in men are increasing faster than rates in women (Gorrell and Murray ). Thus, it is imperative to understand eating disorder risk factors in the male population, such as manifestations of body dissatisfaction during adolescence, and potential protective factors to be leveraged in prevention and intervention efforts. Adolescence is a risk period for negative body image due to biological, psychological, and social factors. Both girls and boys can experience increased self‐consciousness and social comparison during adolescence which contributes to body dissatisfaction (Mulgrew ). Adolescent girls are at risk for body dissatisfaction as they experience normal pubertal changes like increased adipose tissue deposits. This development moves girls further away from the thin female body type promoted as “ideal” by the media and in society (Mulgrew ). For adolescent boys, pubertal changes include increased muscle mass and shoulder width which may move them to closer to the “ideal” male body type (Ricciardelli ). However, experiencing later pubertal onset in comparison to peers can increase the likelihood of adolescent boys developing body dissatisfaction (Tarif et al. ). For adolescent girls, greater body dissatisfaction has been shown to predict greater disordered eating attitudes and behaviors (Mustapic et al. ). Compared to boys and men, girls and women have historically received greater attention in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating research (Brown and Keel ). However, at subclinical levels, disordered eating attitudes and behaviors may be as common among men as women (National Eating Disorders Association ) and research has documented the association between body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in adolescent boys (Byrne et al. ). There has been substantial effort over the past several decades to examine the prevalence and precursors of eating disorders in the male population, resulting in an increased understanding of the similarities and differences between males and females regarding body dissatisfaction and disordered eating (Baker et al. ).