Introduction: Body dissatisfaction is a growing concern in young adults. However, the underlying cognitive mechanisms associated with body dissatisfaction remain underexplored. The current gap in the literature limits the ability to develop effective mechanism-focused interventions to alleviate body dissatisfaction.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the cognitive processes associated with body dissatisfaction.


Method: A total of 100 young adults between 18-25 years old without current or past diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder enrolled in the study. Participants completed a series of questionnaires pertaining to body dissatisfaction, cognitive flexibility (general and those specific to body image flexibility), perfectionism (general and those specific to physical appearance), and interpretation bias.


Results: Body dissatisfaction was significantly and negatively correlated with less positive interpretation bias and less physical appearance flexibility (but not general cognitive flexibility). Body dissatisfaction was also positively and significantly correlated with general perfectionism, but the association was stronger for physical appearance perfectionism.


Conclusions: This is the first study to investigate a range of cognitive mechanisms related to body dissatisfaction. The preliminary findings suggest that individuals with body dissatisfaction demonstrate greater dysfunction in context specific to physical appearance, but not general cognitive inflexibility or maladaptive perfectionism. With ongoing data collected in the second wave, the directionality of different variables will be further discussed.