Negative Body Image and Negative Eating Attitudes as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Women

Objective: This study aimed to examine the latent associations among negative body image (NBI), negative eating attitudes (NEA), and depressive symptoms in adult Ecuadorian women. Specifically, it sought to assess the predictive value of NBI and NEA on depression, and to explore the mediating role of NEA in the relationship between NBI and depressive symptoms through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Method: A cross-sectional design was employed with a non-probabilistic sample of 964 Ecuadorian women (M = 29.74, SD = 11.93). Participants completed three validated self-report measures: the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ-21), the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-18), and the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). CFA and SEM analyses were conducted using R, employing the DWLS estimation method due to the ordinal nature of the data and non-normal multivariate distribution. Results: NBI and NEA were found to be significant positive predictors of depressive symptoms, jointly explaining 40.1% of the variance. NEA partially mediated the relationship between NBI and depression. Notably, the mediation was identified as competitive/suppressor in nature, whereby the indirect effect acted in the opposite direction to the direct effect, enhancing the explanatory power of the model. Conclusion: The findings contribute to theoretical, methodological, and practical understanding of depressive symptomatology in women, especially within under-researched Latin American populations. The results emphasise the relevance of addressing distorted body image and maladaptive eating attitudes in preventive and clinical interventions and demonstrate the value of SEM in revealing complex psychological mechanisms.