The Skinny on Body Dissatisfaction: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Girls and Boys

The present study tested whether theoretically derived risk factors predicted increases in body dissatisfaction and whether gender moderated these relations with data from a longitudinal study of 428 adolescent girls and boys because few prospective studies have examined these aims, despite evidence that body dissatisfaction increases risk for various psychiatric disturbances. Body dissatisfaction showed significant increases for girls and significant decreases for boys during early adolescence. For both genders, parental support deficits, negative affectivity, and self-reported dietary restraint showed significant relations to future increases in body dissatisfaction. Ideal body internalization and body mass index did not demonstrate significant relations to future increases in body dissatisfaction; peer support deficits showed a marginal relation to this outcome. Gender did not moderate these relations, despite adequate power to detect interactive effects.

How Voters Evaluate Economic Competence: A Comparison between Parties In and Out of Power

Accounts of general election outcomes increasingly talk about voters comparing parties in terms of their perceived competence to manage the economy and public services. This raises the question of how voters form evaluations of party competence. While it is assumed that voters form evaluations of the incumbent based on the signals provided by its current performance in office it is less clear how, in the absence of such a performance record, voters might evaluate the potential competence of the opposition. Using data from the British Election Panel Studies this article models the process by which voters form evaluations of parties' competence to manage the economy and compares results across incumbent and opposition parties. On the basis of evidence from general elections of 1992–2001 the article demonstrates that the process of evaluation formation does differ between parties in and out of power with retrospective evaluations of recent economic performance influencing evaluations of the former but not the latter. Nevertheless, the article also demonstrates that voters are capable of forming evaluations of the opposition which are more than a simple mirror image of their evaluations of the incumbent. In the absence of an up-to-date performance record these evaluations are based on long-term partisan and ideological predispositions and the cues provided by party leaders.     

Considering Knowledge Uptake within a Cycle of Transforming Data,Information, and Knowledge

Knowledge uptake, having decision makers assimilate the ideas of experts, is recognized as an important stimulus to bringing about policy change. This is particularly true in the realm of environmental policymaking, which is characterized by knowledge intensity, complexity, and multifaceted concerns. Using examples from an innovative watershed management organization, this article presents a heuristic for understanding how knowledge uptake occurs within a cycle of organizational reasoning. This cycle is driven by activities that transform data, information, and knowledge and that link specialists with decision makers. The heuristic can be used as a diagnostic tool to identify breaks in the transformation process that impede mandate fulfillment and impair capacity building. Lack of appreciation of the dynamic relationship between data, information and knowledge leads to mistimed and ineffective policy interventions that do not result in the hoped for progress in science intended to underpin policy advances.     

The impact of puberty and dating on eating problems among middle school girls

Puberty has been related to the onset of a variety of weight concerns and eating problems among middle school girls, including body dissatisfaction, dieting, and eating disorders. At least two models can be used to explain these relationships. The first emphasizes the timing of puberty, arguing that girls who face early puberty are particularly stressed because of the off-time nature of the event. The second focuses on synchronous events. For girls more than boys, puberty is likely to coincide with the change from elementary to middle school and/or beginning to date. Such synchronous events may create greater stress for girls. Seventy-nine girls were tested during the spring of their sixth- and eighth-grade years. Pubertal and dating status, body dissatisfaction, weight management, and eating disordered attitudes (using the Children's EAT:ChEAT) were assessed. The simple timing model (early vs. on time vs. late) was not supported. The simple synchronous model received some support in that girls with synchronous onset of menstruation and dating had higher ChEAT scores as well as greater body dissatisfaction. However, the data indicated that girls for whom puberty was early and coincidental with dating might be at unusual risk. These girls showed the highest levels of body dissatisfaction and the highest ChEAT scores.Ph.D. from Temple University. Research interest is in developmental psychology.Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa BarbaraThese authors have a joint research program in the developmental psychopathology of eating problems.The first wave of data for this report was collected as part of her undergraduate honors thesis.Earlier versions of these data were presented at the 1991 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, Washington and the 1992 Conference on Human Development, Atlanta, Georgia.