The Relationship between Body Image and Body Mass index with Mental Health in the Course of Development

Background and Considering the importance of physical development and its relationship with psychological development during adolescence, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between body image and body mass index with mental health in the course of development.
The present research is analytical sectionaland correlational. The statistical population included all 11-16 years old girls in Tehran who were studying in the 5th grade, 8th until 10th high school in the academic year of 2014-2015. Fifth grade students as early adolescence, eighth grade high school students as middle, and tenth grade high school students were considered as adolescents. A sample of 384 people was selected by cluster random sampling and responded to the questionnaires of body image concern inventory, (Littleton and et al., 2005), body mass index (GHQ-28) and general health (Golbarg and Hiller, 1979). For analyzing the data, correlation coefficient and multiple regression tests were used.
The results of multivariate analysis of variance and Scheffe post hoc test showed that there is a significant difference between body image and body mass index with mental health in girls in different stages of development (p According to the results of this study, it can be concluded that there is a correlation between body image and body mass index with mental health in adolescent girls and at the level of developmental comparison, intervention can be considered for improvement of physical image.