BMI and Romantic Relationship Status

An article found in the December 2005 edition of the Journal of Research on Adolescence looked at correlations between a girl's body mass index (BMI), dieting, and romantic relationships. The article started out by emphasizing the changes females go through during puberty and their adolescent years, which is a time of many changes for both males and females. However, as males go through puberty, they generally become more muscular, which fits the ideal image Americans have for men. As females go through puberty they gain body fat, which goes against the American image of the ideal woman, which is thin with little fat. The article also points out that because of our society and its objectification of women, men prefer slimmer women. The pressure girls feel to be thin increases during this time, which can cause puberty to be difficult for girls because of the exposure to images and cultural preferences of thin women. During this time romantic relationships are a key part of the social contexts for adolescents. Relationships can influence and enhance or deteriorate feelings of attractiveness based on response provided by a romantic partner. The researchers in this study wanted to see if there is any relationship between a girl's BMI (body mass index) and having a romantic partner, and whether or not BMI corresponds with whether or not her romantic relationship is sexual. They also looked at dieting to see if it has anything to do with being in a romantic relationship. In these relationships, does dieting tie in with sex? They also wanted to see if the answers to these questions changed over time and whether or not they varied among age and race or ethnicity. While previous studies have been done on this topic, these particular researchers found this study to be unique because past studies were limited to a small class of girls, generally white middle and upper class. The researchers used a larger, more diverse group for this study.

The research was started in the 1994 - 1995 school year with girls in the 7th to 12th grades. They started with questionnaires given to 90,000 students in 134 different schools. After the questionnaires were filled out, each participant was eligible for a more in depth home study. This at home portion of the research has been termed Wave I. 20,000 at home interviews were conducted during Wave I. In this phase, laptops and dio-CASI technology were used to gather information. BMI was based on self-reported weight and height, which left room for inconsistencies. The journal article points out that previous research has found that respondents were are below average in weight report a weight greater than what it is. Respondents who are above average in weight report their weight lower than what it really is. Questions were posed to the respondents by rating on a scale of 1 to 5, which statements best described them. One example of a question posed regarding pubertal status is, "As a girl grows up her body becomes more curved. Which sentence best describes you?" Wave II consisted of 14,000 respondents being re-interviewed at home in 1996. Respondents who were seniors in Wave I were not eligible for Wave II. 6,022 girls met the criteria for the study, and of them 5,487 were used. 535 were excluded because of missing information. Because of the number of girls available for the study, only three ethnic groups were considered: black, white, and Hispanic. The study was also limited to the examination of opposite-sex romantic relationships.

The results found that the white girls were more likely than the other girls to have a college educated parent. The white girls were generally younger in terms of puberty and physical maturation than the black and Hispanic girls. The black girls had the highest BMI and the white and Hispanic girls were more likely to respond that they do diet. All of the girls were similar in terms of having a romantic relationship, however the black girls were more likely to say they were involved in a sexual romantic relationship. With these results, the researchers concluded that "girls who are more pubertally developed, black, of greater gynecological age, and have parents with less than a college education have greater BMIs." They also concluded that for point a girl's BMI increases, the likelihood of being in a romantic relationship decreases by 6%. Being involved in a romantic relationship that was not sexual resulted in an increased amount of dieting. This was not seen in girls involved in sexual romantic relationships.

Sources:
Halpern, Carolyn Tucker, et al. "Body Mass Index, Dieting, Romance, and Sexual Activity in Adolescent Girls: Relationships Over Time." Journal of Research on Adolescence (Blackwell Publishing Limited) 15.4 (Dec. 2005): 535-559. Academic Search Premier.
EBSCO. Christian Brothers University, Memphis, TN. 30 October 2007.