Rm. Gardner et al., Body size estimations, body dissatisfaction, and ideal size preferences inchildren six through thirteen, J YOUTH ADO, 28(5), 1999, pp. 603-618
Results of the second year of a 3-year longitudinal study on children's bod
y size estimations are reported. Participants were 216 male and female chil
dren age 6 through 13. Body size estimations were measured using a TV-video
methodology. Three psychophysical procedures measured perceived body size,
idealized size, and body dissatisfaction. Self-esteem, body esteem, birth
order, number of siblings, and parents' socioeconomic status (SES) were mea
sured.
Children were accurate in estimating body size, with no gender age, or ethn
ic differences. Individual estimations varied greatly over the I-year test-
retest interval. Children had a slight bias to report that their body size
was distorted too wide. Both genders wanted to be thinner with females want
ing to be increasingly thinner as they became older: Females were also more
dissatisfied with their body size. Taller and heavier children with high S
ES fathers wanted a thinner idealized body size. Taller thinner children ha
d less body size dissatisfaction. Children with a larger number of siblings
who were one of the first born were more dissatisfied with their body size
. Children who gained weight during the previous year without a concomitant
growth in height were also more dissatisfied with their body and wanted to
be thinner. Body size estimation is viewed as an important aspect of one's
body image and is mediated by marry different variables, each of which ind
ividually explains only a small part of the variance.