Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T13:56:27.175Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Influence of Genetic and Environmental Factors in Estimations of Current Body Size, Desired Body Size, and Body Dissatisfaction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Tracey D. Wade ,
Cynthia M. Bulik ,
Andrew C. Heath ,
Nicholas G. Martin  and
Lindon J. Eaves
Tracey D. Wade*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, Australia. [email protected]
Cynthia M. Bulik
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
Andrew C. Heath
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, USA.
Nicholas G. Martin
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia.
Lindon J. Eaves
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
*
*Address for correspondence Dr Tracey Wade, School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia, PO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia.

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The objective was to investigate the genetic epidemiology of figural stimuli. Standard figural stimuli were available from 5,325 complete twin pairs: 1,751 (32.9%) were monozygotic females, 1,068 (20.1%) were dizygotic females, 752 (14.1%) were monozygotic males, 495 (9.3%) were dizygotic males, and 1,259 (23.6%) were dizygotic male-female pairs. Univariate twin analyses were used to examine the influences on the individual variation in current body size and ideal body size. These data were analysed separately for men and women in each of five age groups. A factorial analysis of variance, with polychoric correlations between twin pairs as the dependent variable, and age, sex, zygosity, and the three interaction terms (age x sex, age x zygosity, sex x zygosity) as independent variables, was used to examine trends across the whole data set. Results showed genetic influences had the largest impact on the individual variation in current body size measures, whereas non-shared environmental influences were associated with the majority of individual variation in ideal body size. There was a significant main effect of zygosity (heritability) in predicting polychoric correlations for current body size and body dissatisfaction. There was a significant main effect of gender and zygosity in predicting ideal body size, with a gender x zygosity interaction. In common with BMI, heritability is important in influencing the estimation of current body size. Selection of desired body size for both men and women is more strongly influenced by environmental factors.

Type
Articles
Information
Twin Research and Human Genetics , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , 01 August 2001 , pp. 260 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001