Directionality of the relationships between global self-esteem and physical self components in anorexic outpatient girls : an in-depth idiographic analysis

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the directionality of the observed relationships between global self-esteem and the physical self components in anorexic outpatient girls over a 140-day period. Nine anorexic outpatients (Mage = 18.50, s.d. age = 2.58; MBody Mass Index = 16.74, s.d.Body Mass Index = 2.04) completed daily a short version of the physical self-inventory between 7:00 and 9:00 p.m. This instrument assessed with a 10-cm visual analog scale global self-esteem and physical self-perceptions (i.e. physical self-worth, physical condition, sport competence, body attractiveness, and physical strength). Cross-correlations analyses were used. The results showed highest coefficients between dimensions at lag 0. The direction of the relationships between global self-esteem and physical self components in anorexic outpatients mostly corresponded to a reciprocal hypothesis. This suggests that a positive or negative change in global self-esteem or sub-domains of physical self perceptions affected rapidly (in less than a day) the proximal domain or sub-domains of the hierarchical physical self-concept structure.