The scope of this study was to analyze the relationship between the internalization of body image and depressive symptoms with restrictive eating habits among young males. Three hundred and eighty-three male adolescents, aged between twelve and seventeen, took part in this survey. The “Overall Internalization” and “Athletic Internalization” sub-scales taken from the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-3 (SATAQ-3) were used to evaluate the internalization of body images. The Major Depression Inventory (MDI) was used to evaluate depressive symptoms. The “Diet” sub-scale from the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) was used to evaluate restrictive eating habits. The logistic regression findings indicated 2.01 times greater chances of youngsters with a high level of overall internalization adopting restrictive eating habits (Wald = 6.16; p = 0.01) when compared with those with low levels. On the other hand, the regression model found no significant association between “Athletic Internalization” (Wald = 1.16; p = 0.23) and depressive symptoms (Wald = 0.81; p = 0.35) with eating restrictions. The findings made it possible to conclude that only overall internalization was related to eating restrictions among young males.
Body image; Eating disorders; Depression; Adolescents
