Divergent pathways from body image to disordered eating and physical activity: differential roles of thin-ideal and muscular-ideal internalization among Chinese female college students.

Authors

Hongquan Chen, Qian Li, Hanru Li, Han Liu, Hongyao Li, Yitong Wang, Jiaqi Xue, Meng Wang

Published in

Frontiers in psychology. Volume 17. Pages 1823005. Epub Sep 16, 2026.

Abstract

To construct and test a dual-pathway differentiation model exploring associations of body image with eating disorders and physical activity among female college students, examining the differential mediating roles of thin-ideal internalization and muscular-ideal internalization.
Using a cross-sectional design, data were collected from 4,172 female college students across six universities in mainland China via online questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was employed to examine patterns of association among body image, thin-ideal internalization, muscular-ideal internalization, depression, perceived body fat, eating disorders, and physical activity. The bias-corrected Bootstrap method (5,000 resamples) was used to test mediating effects.
The structural equation model showed a good fit (RMSEA = 0.044). All mediating and direct pathways in the model reached statistical significance. Thin-ideal internalization played a chain-mediating role between body image and eating disorders, while muscular-ideal internalization independently mediated the association between body image and physical activity.
Body image can differentiate into risk-oriented and adaptation-oriented behavioral pathways through different types of ideal internalization. Body image was associated with eating disorder risk, whereas muscular-ideal internalization was associated with engagement in physical activity. These findings indicate that the type of body ideal internalization functions as a core mechanism of behavioral differentiation, providing a theoretical basis and potential intervention targets for eating disorder prevention and health behavior promotion.

PMID:
42818725
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Oct 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.