Association between Body Appreciation and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Filipino Emerging Adults: Modification by Age and Sex at Birth.

Emerging adulthood is a new stage of development that follows identity explorations during adolescence and precedes adulthood. During this phase, varied perceptions of body image may affect the mental health status of these individuals. This research examined the association between body appreciation (BA) as a measure of body image and mental health outcomes - particularly, depression, anxiety, and stress. A cross-sectional survey was used to ascertain data from 3,127 18-29-yr-old Filipinos (67% female; mean age = 21) residing in the Philippines using an online self-administered questionnaire. BA Scale-2 (BAS-2) measured BA, whereas DASS-21 assessed levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Associations between BA, and mental health outcomes were estimated using Poisson regression models with a log-link function and a robust variance estimator. A higher BAS-2 score (2nd-4th Quartiles) is associated with a reduced risk of severe/extreme levels of depression, anxiety, and stress than a low BAS-2 score (1st Quartile). Moreover, the association between BA and stress may be stronger among female participants (p-value interaction = 0.01) and late emerging adults (p-value interaction = 0.47). However, effect modification by age and sex was insignificant for the association between BA and anxiety and depression (p-values for interaction > 0.15). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]