Social Location, Significant Others and Body Image Among Adolescents

Relatively little is known about factors that influence the extent to which self-perceptions of attractiveness diverge from the evaluations of other observers. Examined in this study are socialfactors that affect the self-evaluations of body weight provided by more than 6500 adolescents. Data are obtained from Cycle III of the National Health Examination Survey. Our findings suggest that adolescents tend to denigrate rather than enhance their body image. This derogation is more pronounced for females than for males. The direction by which the derogation occurs varies by sex, with males viewing themselves as too thin and females rating themselves as overweight, and race, with blacks seeing themselves as too thin. Nevertheless, status characteristics are less powerful predictors of body image than parental assessments, which have a stronger effect on females than on males. This research demonstrates that social location and the views of significant others affect how adolescents see themselves. Implications of these findings and suggestions for further research are discussed.