SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – As of last month, more than a third of Americans said they weren’t very happy with their weight and body image, per a YouGov tracker. When do we start developing a sense of body image?
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Authors of a study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology sought to determine if children perceive body types the same way as adults do. They demonstrated that perceptions of body weight are subject to adaptation aftereffects that are adult-like from the time people are at least 7 years old.
“These results have implications for our understanding of body size (mis)perception in health and well-being contexts as well as for our broader understanding of the development of body perception,” said the study authors.
To study how people react to certain bodies, the researchers conducted two studies. One focused on younger children and the other focused on adolescents. All participants were primarily white and British.
“Participants viewed bodies ranging from low to high weight before and after being adapted to bodies with very low or very high body mass,” the study explained. “Participants of all ages showed a significant change in their weight estimates after being adapted to larger bodies (but not to smaller bodies), suggesting that this aspect of body perception is functionally mature by 7 years.”
Methods differed slightly between the tests for adolescents, adults and children – primarily location and in the case of children, how answers were recorded. For example, children told an adult their answers to input, while adolescents submitted their own answers. Tests included looking at images of bodies and giving them a number assessment based on a Body Mass Index scale.
Across the two studies, the researchers found that larger bodies were more effective in changing perceptions than the thin stimuli. They said that a key implication of their findings are that “those visual processes that maintain the perceptual element of thin ideals in adult populations also likely apply to children well before puberty and that any remedial changes in our visual environment (e.g., inclusion of a more diverse sample of body weights in the media) would likely benefit these younger groups to the same degree as adults.”
Previous evidence indicates that children show “attitudinal thin ideal internalization from 5 or 7 years of age onward,” the study authors added. This evidence also linked playing with ultra-thin dolls as something that may induce the desire for a slimmer body in young girls.
While the study did demonstrate that viewing more larger bodies changed perceptions, the study author noted that there were some caveats with the studies, including a limited geographic pool focused on Northern England. They suggested more research into the topic.
According to the U.S. Office on Women’s Health, girls are more likely to have a negative body image than boys. However, having a poor body image can have negative consequences for both girls and boys.
“Negative body image may also lead to low self-esteem, which can affect many areas of your life,” the office explained. “You may not want to be around other people or may obsess constantly about what you eat or how much you exercise. But you can take steps to develop a healthier body image,” such as concentrating on thinking positive thoughts about your body.
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