The "body beautiful": English adolescents' images of ideal bodies

Research on body image has neglected adolescents' ideals beyond thinness, p articularly those of adolescent boys. Two studies are reported which examin e a range of qualities in order to capture English adolescents' images of i deal bodies for same- and other-gender individuals. Study 1 used a qualitat ive approach, where 58 pupils aged 12-16 years discussed photograph arrays of "good-looking" media personalities of both genders and then chose descri ptors for "ideal" women and men. Adolescents' preferences for qualities in either art "ideal woman" or an "ideal man, " and possible influences on tho se preferences, were assessed quantitatively in Study 2, which used a quest ionnaire with 458 pupils in the same age range. With few exceptions, all re spondents were white Caucasian and roughly equally split between working-cl ass and middle-class backgrounds. The main findings were that body-image id eals are multidimensional, show systematic gender differences, and become m ore conventional with age (closer to cultural ideals). Adolescents' own bod y mass is linked systematically to body-image preferences, but only with re spect to the "ideal woman," where heavier adolescents of both genders (high er BMI) distance themselves from conventional notions of female beauty.