Adolescent body image and attitudes to anabolic steroid use
E. M. Komoroski and V. I. Rickert
Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock.
Eleventh-grade students at seven high schools in central Arkansas were
surveyed regarding anabolic steroid use, risk-taking behavior, satisfaction
with body image, and attitudes and beliefs regarding anabolic steroids. A
total of 1492 adolescents were surveyed. Fifty-one (7.6%) of 672 males and
12 (1.5%) of 806 females admitted anabolic steroid use. Fourteen students
did not specify gender. Bivariate comparisons showed significant
differences between users and nonusers in risk-taking behaviors and degree
of satisfaction with body image and muscles. Users were more likely than
nonusers to approve of anabolic steroid use in sports and to believe that
anabolic steroid use could improve one's health. Multivariate analyses
found gender, knowledge of beneficial side effects, knowing other anabolic
steroid users, age, and race to be significantly related to anabolic
steroid use. Information about steroids' effects seldom came from
physicians, but often came from peers. Anabolic steroid use was strongly
motivated by social influences, some knowledge of beneficial effects, and
denial of adverse effects in white adolescent males in our study
population.
