"Who Pushes You to Be Bigger?": Psychosocial Correlates of Muscle Dissatisfaction Among Chinese Male College Students in Hong Kong

Western studies suggest that perceived pressure from family members, peers, and the media to achieve muscularity ideals are associated with higher muscle dissatisfaction and that such associations are mediated through different psychological processes. However, how such findings apply to young Chinese men has not been explored. Using an online survey, this study examined if perceived pressure from family, peers, and the media to achieve muscularity ideals was associated with muscle dissatisfaction among 319 male college students in Hong Kong and investigated the potential mechanisms explaining such associations (social comparison, uncompassionate self-responding, and body surveillance). Structural equation modeling results indicated that pressure from peers was associated with higher muscle dissatisfaction through increased uncompassionate self-responding (β = 0.05, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.01, 0.09]). Pressure from the media was associated with higher muscle dissatisfaction through increased social comparison (β = 0.12, 95% CI [0.01, 0.22]) and uncompassionate self-responding (β = 0.05, 95% CI [0.01, 0.09]). Contrary to our hypotheses, pressure from family members was not associated with muscle dissatisfaction and the mediating psychological processes. Moreover, the direct effect from perceived peer pressure to muscle dissatisfaction remained significant after considering the mediators (β = 0.18, 95% CI [0.02, 0.33]). The mediation models were supported by satisfactory model fit indices. This study revealed that different sources of muscularity-related pressure were associated with Chinese male college students’ muscle dissatisfaction through varied psychological processes. Practitioners may consider different intervention strategies to reduce the potential impacts of peer and media pressures on muscle dissatisfaction among young Chinese men