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Muscle Dysmorphia in Adolescence: The Role of Parental Psychological Control on a Potential Behavioral Addiction

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Abstract

Objective

The study investigated the relationship between psychological parental control and muscle dysmorphia in adolescence, as form of exercise dependence, focusing also on the role of pathological worry.

Methods

Participants were 312 adolescents (140 boys and 172 girls) aged 16 to 18 years (M = 17.05; SD = 0.85) and completed the Muscle Dysmorphia Disorder Inventory, the Dependency-oriented and Achievement-oriented Parental Psychological Control, and the Penn State Worry Questionnaire.

Results

The results highlighted that boys showed higher level than girls in dependency-oriented and achievement-oriented parental psychological control and muscle dysmorphia. Furthermore, girls showed higher levels of pathological worry than boys. Pathological worry partially mediated the relationship between dependency-oriented parental psychological control and muscle dysmorphia as well as between achievement-oriented parental psychological and muscle dysmorphia. Psychological parental control predicted muscle dysmorphia, and pathological worry seemed to act as a partial mediator in this relationship.

Conclusions

Psychology parental control and pathological worry are linked to muscle dysmorphia, but psychological parental control seems to frustrate the need for autonomy of adolescents and, therefore, muscle dysmorphia may become the maladaptive answer to react to the excessive control of their parents. It seems that body of adolescents may become the scenario towards which they play a sort of power of control to counteract anxiety deriving from the excessive psychological control played by parents.

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Author Contributions

UP, GDU, AP, SM, MC, and CZ designed and executed the study, assisted with the data analyses, wrote the paper, and edited the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy

    Ugo Pace, Giulio D’Urso & Alessia Passanisi

  2. Lumsa University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Sonia Mangialavori & Marco Cacioppo

  3. University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Carla Zappulla

Authors
  1. Ugo Pace
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  2. Giulio D’Urso
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  3. Alessia Passanisi
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  4. Sonia Mangialavori
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  5. Marco Cacioppo
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  6. Carla Zappulla
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Correspondence to Ugo Pace.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards and were approved by the Italian Psychology Association.

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Pace, U., D’Urso, G., Passanisi, A. et al. Muscle Dysmorphia in Adolescence: The Role of Parental Psychological Control on a Potential Behavioral Addiction. J Child Fam Stud 29, 455–461 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01547-w

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