A Body Functionality Approach to Height Dissatisfaction in Women

Despite an abundance of research on body image dissatisfaction in women and its causes, correlates, and treatments, limited research has focused on height dissatisfaction in women. To address this gap in the existing research, the present study aims to examine height dissatisfaction and a possible intervention technique. Alleva and colleagues devised a body functionality writing prompt intervention for people who were dissatisfied with their body image (2014). The treatment aimed to pull participants’ focus away from appearance and direct the focus towards the function of the body (Alleva et al., 2014). Alleva and colleagues found that women who focused on body functionality experienced increased functionality satisfaction following the prompt (2014). Alleva and Tylka also found that functionality-focused body image interventions improve body image more broadly (2021). The current study hypothesized that focusing on the function of the body will improve women’s satisfaction with their height. 118 women were randomly assigned to either the test group (N=57), in which participants responded to the body functionality writing prompt, or the control group (N=61), in which participants responded to the control prompt. Inconsistent with the hypothesis, there were not significant effects of the writing prompt on height satisfaction, and in fact, it was non-significantly higher after the body functionality writing prompt. These results indicate that functionality prompts may be beneficial for women who experience height dissatisfaction, but may require additional sessions or interventions to increase the magnitude of the effect. A moderate correlation between height satisfaction and body satisfaction may also indicate that height satisfaction should be studied independently of overall body satisfaction and that different intervention techniques may be necessary for height satisfaction compared to interventions typically used for general body dissatisfaction that is typically focused on weight and shape.