Effect of gender composition of school on body concerns in adolescent women

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the role of gender composition o f school on body figure preferences, eating disorder symptomology, and role concerns. Method: Questionnaires were completed by 261 Australian adolesce nt girls in two private single-sex and two private coeducational school env ironments. Results: There was no difference in nominated ideal figure or ea ting disorder scores between the schools. However, girls in the single-sex schools placed a greater emphasis on achievement than their counterparts at the coeducational schools. These role concerns had a differential impact o n prediction of the ideal figure, whereby the importance placed on intellig ence and professional success predicted the choice of a thinner ideal figur e for the single-sex schools, but a larger ideal for the coeducational scho ols. Discussion: It was concluded that the motivation for thinness differs between single-sex and coeducational schools. (C) 2001 by John Wiley & Sons , Inc.