Parent, Peer, And Media Influences On Body Image And Strategies To Both Increase And Decrease Body Size Among Adolescent Boys Ant Girls - Statistical Data Included

Adolescence, Summer, 2001 by Marita P. McCabe, Lina A. Ricciardelli

METHOD

Participants

The participants were 1,266 adolescents (622 males, 644 females) enrolled in grades 7-10. The mean age was 13.94 years (SD = 1.14) for males and 13.78 years (SD = 1.09) for females (range 12 to 16 years). They were drawn from ten coeducational high schools in Melbourne, Australia. Seventy-seven percent were Anglo-Saxon, with the remainder being primarily from European countries and a minority from Asian countries.

Materials

All adolescents completed the Body Image and Body Change Inventory (Ricciardelli & McCabe, 1999) and the Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2001). The Body Image and Body Change Inventory assesses body image satisfaction (ten items), body image importance (ten items), body change strategies to decrease weight (ten times), body change strategies to increase weight (ten items), body change strategies to increase muscle tone (six items), binge eating (nine items), and food supplements (six items). The Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire assesses the influence of father, mother, best male friend, and best female friend (three items each): general feedback, feedback to gain weight and increase muscles, and feedback to lose weight and increase muscles. Feedback to increase muscles was combined with both feedback on weight loss and weight gain because both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on two adolescent samples have demonstrated that feedback on developing muscle tone does not occur on its own, but is linked with feedback on either weight loss or weight gain (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2001). This questionnaire also assesses the influence of the media (nine items): the extent to which television and magazines give adolescents the idea that they should lose weight, gain weight, and improve muscle size. All items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale, and total scores are obtained by summing responses. Both of these instruments have demonstrated high levels of reliability (alpha [greater than] .77 for all scales), have been subject to both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and have demonstrated good reliability and validity with a number of adolescent populations (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2001; Ricciardelli & McCabe, 1999).

Procedure

Permission was received from the Department of Education to solicit the participation of high schools within the State of Victoria in a study of body image and body change techniques among adolescent males and females. Both parental and student consent were obtained. Ninety-eight percent of those who were approached to take part in the study agreed to participate. The instruments were completed during a single class period.

RESULTS

This study was designed to investigate gender, grade level, and BMI differences in body image and body change strategies, as well as sociocultural influences on body image and body change strategies, among adolescents. The participants were divided into three groups on the basis of their BMI: [greater than]15% overweight (n = 201), within normal range (n = 849), and [greater than]15% underweight (n = 216) (Must, Dallal, & Dietz, 1991). Must et al. (1991) based these groupings on anthropometric data available on 20,839 individuals between 6 and 74 years of age.