Gender, Body Image, and Self-Concept in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Structure and valuation of body image and the relationship between body image and self-concept were examined in 169 ninth-grade males and females. Three specific hypotheses were tested: (a) that females would have more differentiated body images than males; (b) that males would value their bodies more than females; and (c) that the degree of relationship between valuation of body image and self-concept would be stronger for females than for males. Two measures of body image, body satisfaction and body experience, and two measures of self-concept, self-esteem and self-awareness, were employed. As predicted, females had more diffierentiated, and males more global, body images, and males were more positive about their bodies than were females. Contrary to expectations, no significant gender differences were found for any of the correlations between body image and self-concept, although all correlations for males were higher than were those for females.