Body Image Dissatisfaction Among Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade Children. Discussion
Discussion
These results are similar to other studies and indicate that children as young as eight years old are experiencing some level of body image dissatisfaction. Among girls, this bias toward thinness is similar to those experienced by adolescent and college-age females. The boys’ level of dissatisfaction is similar to previous studies with this age group, (Collins, 1991; Shapiro, Newcomb, and Loeb, 1997; Thompson, Corwin, and Sargent, 1997), however the direction of the dissatisfaction (wishing to be thinner) is in the opposite direction than adolescent and college-age males (Cohn, Adler, Irwin, Millstein, Kegeles, & Stone; 1987; Fallon & Rozin, 1985).
Studies support that females, particularly white females, show a strong desire for thinness regardless of age or despite being of normal weight, while males on the other hand are more likely to express a desire for a more muscular physique. This desire for the ideal male figure, however, generally does not occur until adolescence (Smolak, 2004). The results of the present study support this trend, where 45.1% of the girls surveyed, showed a desire toward a thinner body type, despite the fact that they were of normal weight. A large percentage of boys in the present study also showed a desire toward thinness; however, 12 % indicated that they wished to be larger. This would support the suggestion found in the literature that preadolescent boys (younger than 11 years old) are not yet interested in building muscle (Polce-Lynch, Myers, Kilmartin, Forssmann-Falck, & Kliewer, 1998).
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When looking at figure selections of an ideal body shape across grades (girls and boys combined), we found that third grade children selected a much smaller ideal figure than what the fifth grade children selected. In other words, the gap between current self and ideal self narrowed as the children got older. This was an interesting finding, and somewhat contrary to what previous studies support, which indicates that as children approach adolescence, the incidence of body image dissatisfaction increases. Overall statistics from the present study do not support this. We see that the difference or gap between current self and ideal self decreases among both girls and boys as they get older, but more so among the boys. One might surmise that as the boys are getting older and approaching the age of 11 years, they are beginning to show less desire for a smaller physique. This fact alone could be one reason that the overall change in ideal self figure selections occurred.
When examining overall body dissatisfaction across grades by gender, our results showed that as girls got older (from third grade to fifth grade), the desire for thinness decreased and their level of body satisfaction increased. Similarly, boys showed a decrease in wishing to be thinner as they got older; however, they did exhibit an overall trend toward wishing to be larger from third to fifth grade. Body satisfaction among boys also increased from third grade to fifth grade. These are encouraging findings and go against what is found in previous literature. These results should be viewed with guarded optimism, however, because the overall level of body dissatisfaction among the children as a whole was still high.