Body image
The proportion of young people aged 11 to 16 who agree that they are happy with their looks and their weight, as measured by Victoria University of Wellington's Youth Connectedness Study.
Relevance
Body image is a multi-dimensional construct that captures a person’s satisfaction and comfort with how they feel about their physical self and how they appear to other people. Body image is measured here through satisfaction with looks and weight.
Positive body image at all ages heightens self-confidence and self-esteem, and in young women it may be linked to fewer risk-taking health behaviours.(1) Positive body image during puberty and adolescence is especially important as this is a time when body shape and size naturally change, and feeling comfortable about these changes promotes positive body image in adulthood. Adolescence is also a time at which young people become more concerned about their potential sexual attractiveness, and positive body image helps young people to experience the development of their sexuality positively. Negative body image, and in particular the desire to lose weight, has been linked to stress and ill health in adulthood.(2)
Current level and trends
In 2007, the majority of young people were happy with their looks and weight, though a significant minority were not.
A total of 68.5 percent of young people aged 11 to 16 agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I am happy with how I look” and 59.8 percent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I am happy with my weight”.
Proportion of young people aged 11 to 16 who are happy with their looks and weight, 2007
Source: Youth Connectedness Study, 2007.
However, one in ten (10.7 percent) of young people surveyed disagreed or strongly disagreed that they were happy with their looks, and nearly a fifth (18.2 percent) disagreed or strongly disagreed that they were happy with their weight.
These results are not significantly different to those found in 2006 among the same young people at ages 10 to 15, when 69.4 percent of those surveyed were happy with their looks (9.1 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement), and 59.4 percent were happy with their weight (and 20.4 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement).
Notes
1. A discussion of the possible links between negative body-image and risk-taking health behaviours including eating disorders, smoking, drinking and drug use among young women is provided in the following Australian publication: Commonwealth Office on the Status of Women (2003), “Looking risky: Body image and risk-taking behaviours”. Focus On Women Issue 6, http://ofw.facs.gov.au/downloads/pdfs/focus_women_issue6.pdf.2
2. Muennig, P. et al (2008), “I think therefore I am: Perceived Ideal Weight as a Determinant of Health”. American Journal of Public Health, March 2008, 98:3.
