Body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint and body image importance in females across the lifespan

The aim of this review was to analyse the literature concerning body dissatisfaction, and dietary restraint in females of all ages to identify patterns across the female lifespan and to explore the role of the developmental milestones and body image importance in female's body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint. Sociocultural theory suggests that body dissatisfaction occurs as a result of females feeling pressure to achieve the \thin ideal\" a representation of what society deems as attractive. Invariably women are unable to achieve this unrealistic standard and as a result become dissatisfied with their own body. As females age and experience a number of developmental milestones they move further away from this ideal therefore from a sociocultural perspective it has been suggested that body dissatisfaction might increase with age. Despite this research has consistently shown that body dissatisfaction remains stable across the adult female lifespan (Pliner Chaiken & Flett 1990; Tiggemann & Lynch 2001; Webster & Tiggemann 2003). It has been suggested that body image importance may play an important role in explaining the relationship between body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint for females at different ages and stages and this assumption is also examined in this review."