Rapid maturation in adolescence and early adulthood is accompanied with high levels of psychological strain. This has been linked to a variety of mental health issues but has not yet been studied in relation to body image disorder.

It has been found that feelings of body dissatisfaction are at their highest in the teen years and continue into the young adult years. Adolescent body image disturbance prevention programmes sometimes include stress management training, but there has been little empirical work to clarify the nature of the relationship between the two. Therefore, the current research programme investigates the connection between stress and body dissatisfaction in young men and women.

There were three studies conducted to answer the following questions about stress and body image: (a) the nature and direction of the relationship between stress and body dissatisfaction, including the differential role of stressor subdomains; (b) the role of moderating influences such as gender; (c) the role of mediating influences such as the psychological constructs of self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and body importance; and (d) the relevance of stress to an additional body image dimension. The study programme used a variety of methods, such as cross-sectional and longitudinal self-report surveys and experimental designs, to probe these concerns. All three studies’ findings corroborated a female and male population-wide association between stress and body dissatisfaction, particularly in the peer domain. Self-report data collected over time showed that adolescents’ levels of stress were predictive of their level of body dissatisfaction, and that self-esteem and body importance mediated this correlation.