Very Young Children's Body Image: Bodies and Minds under Construction

In recent years research has recognised that notions of body image, body image ideals and body dissatisfaction develop much earlier than was once thought. Forty-seven children (25 male; 22 female) aged between 5 and 6 years were interviewed on three occasions over 12 months regarding their perceptio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational Education Journal Vol. 7; no. 4; pp. 423 - 434
Main Authors Birbeck, David, Drummond, Murray
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Shannon Research Press 01.09.2006
Subjects
Australia
Etiology
Foreign Countries
Health
Obesity
Self Concept
Young Children
Australia
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN1443-1475

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Summary:In recent years research has recognised that notions of body image, body image ideals and body dissatisfaction develop much earlier than was once thought. Forty-seven children (25 male; 22 female) aged between 5 and 6 years were interviewed on three occasions over 12 months regarding their perceptions of body image. The interviews revealed strong negative perceptions of fatness. However, being overweight or even obese was not always correlated with being unhealthy. Conversely, the desire towards cultural ideals of thinness, while apparent, was not as clear.
ISSN:1443-1475