Consequences of Repeated Critical Versus Neutral Body Checking in Men With High Shape or Weight Concern

Body checking (BC) has been implicated as both a risk and maintenance factor of eating disorders, and is defined as any thought or behavior aimed at assessing one’s size, shape, weight, or body composition. Given the negative outcomes associated with BC, intervention techniques have been developed with the aim of curbing these negative behaviors. These intervention techniques aim to adjust the way an individual thinks about their body as a whole, as well as their perceived “problem areas.” Despite men having also been shown to engage in BC, the vast majority of research has been conducted in female populations. By overlooking male populations, this area of research assumes that the results of studies in female populations are generalizable to male populations, which may not be the case. The present study aimed to replicate previous BC research in a male population. Specifically, we aimed to replicate the findings of Walker et al. (2020) which found that, compared to a non-body critical checking (NBCC) control procedure, participants who were randomly assigned to engage in a critical body checking (CBC) every day for four consecutive days showed immediately decreased body satisfaction and self-esteem, but their negative affect improved from baseline to a one-week follow-up. Additionally, in Walker et al. (2020), compared to CBC, participants randomly assigned to a nonjudgmental body checking (NBC) condition, showed immediate improvements in self-esteem and negative affect, and improvements in self-esteem from baseline to one-week follow-up compared to the NBCC control condition. The current study randomly assigned 90 college-aged men with marked shape- or weight-concern to daily 10 minute CBC, NBC, or NBCC procedures, examining their immediate and delayed (one-week follow-up) effects on body satisfaction, self- esteem, and negative affect. Multilevel modeling and follow-up planned comparisons found that these BC manipulations did not have an effect on the participants’ body satisfaction, self-esteem, and negative affect either immediately or at one-week follow-up. Possible reasons for this could be low statistical power or differences between what the CBC and NBC conditions instructed the participants to do and the behaviors participants actually engaged in. Additional research is needed to better understand the role BC plays in men, as a precursor to being better able to address deleterious BC behaviors among men with body image concerns.