Sociocultural influences on body image and physical self-concepts among children

Children's body image was examined in relation to both sociocultural influences and physical self-concepts, which included sporting ability. Findings showed that physical self-concepts more stongly predicted boys' body image, while girls' body image was more strongly predicted by media pressures. Femininity predicted physical self-concepts among both boys and girls.

An exploratory qualitative study of the self-reported impact of female-perpetrated childhood sexual abuse

The limited findings on the impact of female-perpetrated sexual abuse of children are often contradictory, particularly in relation to males. In this exploratory qualitative study, a sample of nine men and five women who reported that they had been sexually abused by women in their childhood were recruited from the general community. They completed a questionnaire that asked them to describe various aspects of their abuse experiences and the perceived consequences. For both men and women, the abuse was associated with negative outcomes across a range of functional areas in both childhood and adulthood. Many impacts were similar to those reported by victims of male-perpetrated sexual abuse. It is argued that the consequences of female-perpetrated child sexual abuse are serious, and further research is required to bring these issues to the awareness of both the public and professionals working in the field of child protection and counseling.

Examining the dissociative basis for body image disturbances

Although dissociative symptoms have been linked with both food- and appearance-related aspects of eating disorders, the psychological mechanisms underlying these relationships remain unclear. The present study evaluated the hypothesis that the disturbances of self-identity attributed to dissociation can manifest as disturbances of body image and, in turn, undermine body-specific self-evaluations relevant to disordered eating (i.e., body comparison, body dissatisfaction, and internalization of the thin ideal). Ninety-three female university students completed self-report measures of dissociation and body-related aspects of disordered eating. In addition, the method of constant stimuli was used to experimentally derive three measures of body image disturbance: (1) accuracy of body size estimations (body image distortion), (2) ability to discriminate between different body sizes (body image sensitivity), and (3) consistency in one’s body size estimations (body image variability). The findings show that dissociation is related to symptoms of disordered eating, and that these relationships may be mediated by body image instability. Collectively, these findings support the notion that the body image attitudes and behaviours that characterize eating disorders may derive from proprioceptive deficits due to dissociation.

'Just bloody fat!' : a qualitative study of body image, self esteem and coping in obese adults

The rise of the ‘obesity epidemic’ in Western societies has led to an increased public gaze on obese individuals. Yet there is limited research that explores through qualitative methods the increased impact it has had on obese individuals’ perceptions of self, body image and coping strategies, using their own words. This paper presents the findings of interviews with a community sample of 142 obese adults in Australia. We examined how obese individuals felt about themselves and their bodies, what influenced these feelings, and the subsequent coping strategies employed. While participants were able to identify many positive characteristics about their inner self, the vast majority used negative language to describe their physical appearance. Many participants described feelings of ‘guilt’, ‘shame’ and ‘blame’ associated with their weight. Coping strategies included striving for perfection in other areas of their life, social isolation, maximising aspects of their appearance and ‘fat’ acceptance. This study shows that, while different groups of obese adults experience, cope with and compensate for the influence of weight-based stereotyping in many different ways, they still feel an unrelenting otherness and difference associated with their weight.

Body image and self-esteem among Asian, Pacific Islander, and white college students in Hawaii and Australia

Body image and its relationship to self-esteem was examined among Asian, Pacific Islander, and White women and men from Hawaii and Australia (n = 172). Although Pacific Islander and White participants had higher body mass indices than Asians, Pacific Islanders were more satisfied than Asians with their health and more satisfied than Asians and Whites with their appearance. Thus, higher body weight and greater body satisfaction may co-occur among Pacific Islanders, whereas lower weight and lower body satisfaction may co-occur among Asians. The findings suggest different levels of risk for body image dissatisfaction, and its associated psychological consequences, across ethnic groups.

Making the most of the self-quotient image in face recognition

The self-quotient image is a biologically inspired representation which has been proposed as an illumination invariant feature for automatic face recognition. Owing to the lack of strong domain specific assumptions underlying this representation, it can be readily extracted from raw images irrespective of the persons's pose, facial expression etc. What makes the self-quotient image additionally attractive is that it can be computed quickly and in a closed form using simple low-level image operations. However, it is generally accepted that the self-quotient is insufficiently robust to large illumination changes which is why it is mainly used in applications in which low precision is an acceptable compromise for high recall (e.g. retrieval systems). Yet, in this paper we demonstrate that the performance of this representation in challenging illuminations has been greatly underestimated. We show that its error rate can be reduced by over an order of magnitude, without any changes to the representation itself. Rather, we focus on the manner in which the dissimilarity between two self-quotient images is computed. By modelling the dominant sources of noise affecting the representation, we propose and evaluate a series of different dissimilarity measures, the best of which reduces the initial error rate of 63.0% down to only 5.7% on the notoriously challenging YaleB data set.

Hien's shed: (re)framing images of female immigrant home-based clothing workers

Campaigns in support of home-based clothing workers (or ‘outworkers’ as they are more commonly known in Australia) deploy powerful images of the exploitative underside of fashion. The migrant woman huddled over her machine has become the quintessential image of campaigns directed against this exploitation. This article engages critically with the politics of such image-making. By examining how frames simultaneously shrink and magnify the image produced it raises questions about what these images exclude or expel and whether and how this matters. It also offers an alternative frame of the female immigrant outworker – an up-close portrait of Hien, a Vietnamese woman who works at home sewing clothes in her suburban shed. The article introduces Hien through a condensed collection of her self-narratives, before moving on to consider how a trade union and community-based movement against outworker exploitation mobilised images of suffering and injured Vietnamese women to promote its cause. It asks how these images speak for and represent women like Hien and suggests that their political ‘success’ relies to some extent on the women being ‘unseen’ and made to ‘unspeak’. Finally, through the metaphor of space, it proffers an expanded dimension to the already framed images invoking Hien’s shed as a space that both produces and disciplines her: ultimately, a ‘transitional space’ between the external and internal worlds that shape and constrain her.

Association of birth weight and current body size to blood pressure in female twins

It has been proposed that low birth weight is associated with high levels of blood pressure in later life. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of blood pressure to birth weight and current body size during growth and adulthood. A total of 711 female multiple births, with one group of 244 in their growth phase mean age 12.0 (2.3)(SD) years and the other of 467 adults (mean age 35.2 (12.6) years), had height, weight and both systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures measured, and self-reported their birth weight. Regression analyses were performed to assess the cross-sectional and within-pair associations of blood pressure to birth weight, with and without adjustments for current body size. Within-pair analysis was based on 296 twin pairs. Cross-sectionally, a reduction in birth weight of 1 kg was associated with 2 to 3 mm Hg higher age-adjusted SBP, which was of marginal significance and explained about 2% of the population variance. Adjustment for body mass index did not significantly change this association. Within-pair analyses found no association between birth weight and SBP or DBP,even after adjusting for current body size. After age, current body size was the strongest predictor of systolic BP. The weak association of blood pressure to birth weight cross-sectionally is of interest, but any within-pair effect of birth weight on blood pressure must be minimal compared with the effect of current body size.

Relationships between identity and self-representations during adolescence

By drawing from literature on identity development as well as on self-discrepancy, the present study aimed to investigate variations in the magnitude of self-belief discrepancies among adolescents with different levels of identity development. The respondents consisted of 336 male and female adolescents, from 5 private secondary schools, ranging in age from 14 to 18 years (M = 15.98, SD = 0.89). Four levels of identity status (Achieved, Moratorium, Foreclosed, and Diffused identity status) were used as the method of identity classification in this study. Four types of self-discrepancies (Actual/Ideal (own), Actual/Ideal (other), Actual/Ought (own), and Actual/Ought (other) self-discrepancy) were also obtained. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that respondents with different identity statuses significantly varied on the magnitude of self-discrepancy experienced. The Foreclosed and Achieved statuses were found to have lower levels of self-belief discrepancy than the Moratorium and Diffused statuses. However, most of the significant differences among the statuses were for the Actual/Ideal (own) and Actual/Ideal (other) self-discrepancies. These results indicate that identity development is related to the magnitude of self-belief discrepancy. However, further research with more developed instruments is needed to explore this relationship more fully.

Menopausal stage and age and perceptions of body image

The aim of This study was to investigate the association between menopausal stage and age and women's perception of their body image. Females from a community sample (n = 304. age range from 35 to 65 years) volunteered to complete a structured questionnaire which contained the Multidimensional Body Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) and the Stunkard Body Shape Figure Scale. One hundred and twenty women were premenopausal, 76 women were perimenopausal and 108 were postmenopausal. The effects of age and menopausal stage could not be separated in ratings of appearance evaluation, fitness evaluation, current, ideal and societal ratings of the Stunkard Body Shape Figure Scale. Premenopausal women (who were likely to be younger) had more positive ratings of appearance evaluation and fitness evaluation than menopausal women (who were likely to be older). Women who were premenopausal nominated smaller figures from the Stunkard Body Shape Figure Scale for ratings of the current, ideal and societal body shape than women who were perimenopausal and postmenopausal. The implications of these findings as they relate to women as they progress through the menopausal transition and as they become older is discussed.

Parent, peer and media influences on body image and strategies to both increase and decrease body size among adolescent boys and girls

This study investigated the nature of body image and body change strategies, as well as the sociocultural influences on these variables, among a group of 1,266 adolescents (622 males, 644 females). In particular, it investigated weight gain and increased muscle, as well as weight loss. It was found that females were less satisfied with their bodies and were more likely to adopt strategies to lose weight, whereas males were more likely to adopt strategies to increase weight and muscle tone. Respondents with higher body mass index (BMI) evidenced greater body dissatisfaction and more weight loss strategies, but there were no differences between BMI groups in weight gain or strategies to increase muscles. Weight gain and strategies to increase muscles were more likely to be undertaken by older adolescents, but there were no grade level differences in weight loss. Media influences to alter weight, as well as feedback from mother, father, and both male and female peers, were greater for females. There were few grade level or BMI differences in regard to any of the sociocultural influences. The importance of these findings in terms of providing a better understanding of factors which may lead to a disturbed body image and body change disorders, particularly among adolescent boys, is discussed.

The structure of the perceived sociocultural influences on body image and body change questionnaire

This article is concerned with the development and evaluation of the Perceived Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire. The scale was designed to assess the perceived nature of feedback received from mother, father, best male friend, and best female friend to gain weight, lose weight, and increase muscle tone. The perceived feedback from the media on each of these areas also was assessed. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted with 240 adolescent boys (mean age = 13.83 years) and 204 adolescent girls (mean age = 13.70 years). A 3-factor structure was found for the 4 scales that related to perceived feedback from mother, father, best male friend, and best female friend. Feedback on muscle tone loaded with both weight loss and weight gain. The three factors related to (a) general feedback; (b) encourage, tease, and modeling to gain weight and increase muscle tone, and (c) encourage, tease, and modeling to lose weight and increase muscle tone. The factor structure and the items that made up these factors were the same for both boys and girls for each of the 4 scales. The Perceived Media Influences Scale formed 3 factors for girls. These factors related to gaining weight, losing weight, and increasing muscle tone. For boys, the same 9 items formed a single factor. The same items were retained for boys and girls. A confirmatory factor analysis with 822 adolescents (382 boys, mean age = 14.02 years; 440 girls, mean age = 13.82 years) confirmed the previously described factor structure. These results demonstrate that the Perceived Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire is able to assess body image and body change strategies that are relevant for both boys and girls.

Children's body image concerns and eating disturbance: a review of the literature

In recent years a large number of studies have examined body image concerns, and early symptoms of eating disturbance among children. However, to date there has been no synthesis or evaluation of these studies. The purpose of the present article is to review and evaluate the research that has examined body image concerns, and eating attitudes and behaviors among children 6 to 11 years of age. The instruments used to assess body image concerns and eating disturbance in children closely resemble those used with adolescents and adults. Overall, the psychometric data for these instruments are very good and there is sufficient evidence indicating that they can be used reliably and validly. In addition, similar variables to those studied in adolescent and adult samples have been found to be associated with children's body image concerns and early eating disturbance. These include gender, age, body mass index, race, sociocultural pressures, and self-concept. Our understanding of the development of body image concerns and eating disturbance in children is limited, however, by the fact that most of the research in this field has been based on cross-sectional data, and the studies have focused almost exclusively on weight-loss cognitions and behaviors.