Bidirectional Associations Between Body Image Concerns and Sense of Competence and Relatedness in Students: Gender and Age Differences.

Introduction: Psychological difficulties can impede the satisfaction of competence and relatedness needs, which are essential for students' well-being and academic achievement. Body image concerns are common psychological difficulties among youth. However, the relationship between body image and these fundamental needs at school remains underexplored. Therefore, the present study examined the longitudinal associations between students' body image concerns and sense of competence and relatedness, and the degree to which teachers' emotional support moderated these bidirectional associations. Gender and age differences were also investigated.

Methods: A total of 2675 students (9-17 years; 41% male/56% female; 74.1% White/25.9% racialized) from 47 schools in Canada completed questionnaires on body image, sense of competence and relatedness at school, and perceived teachers' emotional support at the beginning and at the end of the same academic year.

Results: After controlling for potential confounding variables, body image concerns predicted a lower sense of competence over time, but the reverse association only applied for girls and older students. Body image concerns and sense of relatedness were also found to be bidirectionally associated over time with significant gender differences. Girls' body image concerns predicted a lower sense of relatedness, whereas boys' lower sense of relatedness predicted higher body image concerns over time. Teachers' support moderated some of these associations.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that body image concerns can impact students' sense of competence and relatedness, and vice versa, with significant gender differences. Teachers appear to play a protective role, especially for girls' and older students' body image.