Investigating the Relationship between Satisfaction from Body Image and Socio Cultural Patterns among Female Adolescents in Rasht City

Introduction & Preoccupation with body image is very common among adolescents. Different factors such as socio-cultural patterns have effects on body image and adolescents’ satisfaction from that. This study was done to determine the relationship between the satisfaction from body image and socio-cultural patterns among female adolescents in Rasht city. This descriptive-analytic study was done on 450 female high school adolescents between 15 to 17 years old who were selected based on randomized cluster sampling on 2011 in Rasht. Data was collected using demographic questionnaire,MBSRQ-AS,SATAQ-3 and a balance and a tape measure to determine BMI. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS 16. Mean scores of satisfaction from body image in the domains of “orientation to the appearance” (49.92±4.85), “appearance evaluation” (23.75±3.82) and “satisfaction from body areas” (36.31±6.33) were high while mean score of satisfaction from “preoccupation with being overweight” (17.27±4.82) was low. There was seen a statistically significant relationship between satisfaction from body image based on BMI and general patterns of the society and athletes (P<0.001). The results of study showed that satisfaction from body image in high school female adolescents of Rasht was high except from the domain of “orientation to the appearance”. It also indicated that the subjects’ satisfaction from their body image was under the influence of BMI index, general patterns of society and athletes. So it is needed to identify the influential factors and provide proper trainings for the adolescents to improve their self confidence and prevent from body image disorders among them.