IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v3y2013i1p2158244013478013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Body Image in Young Children

Author

Listed:
  • Kristin E. Heron
  • Joshua M. Smyth
  • Esther Akano
  • Stephen A. Wonderlich

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine body image discrepancies in elementary-age children in a racially diverse sample. Body image and body image discrepancy were measured in elementary school children ( N = 58) of various racial groups (35% Hispanic, 33% African American, 16% Caucasian, 14% other). Each participant was shown a set of silhouette figure drawings and reported current and ideal body sizes. Children’s body discrepancies appear to change between Grades 1 and 2. Notable discrepancies between their current and ideal figures, and their current figure and those that they believe are most attractive, are largely absent in Grade 1, but are evident in Grade 2 and older children. No substantive racial or gender differences in body image perceptions or dissatisfaction were observed in this sample. Body image dissatisfaction may begin as early as second grade in both girls and boys of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. These findings provide preliminary evidence that body discrepancies may begin much earlier than previously thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Kristin E. Heron & Joshua M. Smyth & Esther Akano & Stephen A. Wonderlich, 2013. "Assessing Body Image in Young Children," SAGE Open, , vol. 3(1), pages 21582440134, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:3:y:2013:i:1:p:2158244013478013
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244013478013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244013478013
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244013478013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chiaki Tanaka & John J. Reilly & Maki Tanaka & Shigeho Tanaka, 2018. "Changes in Weight, Sedentary Behaviour and Physical Activity during the School Year and Summer Vacation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-19, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:3:y:2013:i:1:p:2158244013478013. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.