Sociocultural Influences and Body Image in 9- to 12-Year-Old Girls:
The Role of Appearance Schemas
Levina Clark and Marika Tiggemann
Flinders University
This study tested whether an individual’s beliefs about the importance of appearance
in their life is a mediator of sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction in young
girls. Participants were 265 girls in Grades 4 to 7 (M age = 10.71 years) from 5 pri-
vate primary schools in metropolitan Adelaide, South Australia. Girls completed
questionnaire measures of appearance television and magazine exposure, peer ap-
pearance conversations, autonomy, appearance schemas, and body dissatisfaction.
Appearance media exposure and peer appearance conversations were negatively re-
lated to body esteem, and autonomy positively predicted body esteem. Most impor-
tant, appearance schemas mediated between all sociocultural variables and body dis-
satisfaction.
Several studies have shown that many preadoles-
cent children, and particularly girls, report dissatisfac-
tion with their bodies (for reviews, see Ricciardelli &
McCabe, 2001; Smolak & Levine, 2001). In Western
societies at least, such dissatisfaction is most often ex-
pressed in relation to weight and shape. For example,
in their review of the children’s body image literature,
Ricciardelli and McCabe reported specific estimates
for the number of preadolescent girls who desire a thin-
ner body size to range between 28% and 55%. Al-
though an emphasis on reducing body weight may be
necessary in some instances to improve health, in many
cases those girls who desire to be thinner are classified
as normal weight or even underweight according to
age-appropriate body mass index (BMI) scores. The
development of such body dissatisfaction during child-
hood may not only have direct psychological conse-
quences for children at the time (Lawrence & Thelen,
1995), but, more important, the stage may be set for
more serious body image problems during later life
(e.g., Shisslak et al., 1999). As described by Smolak
(2002), in developed countries, negative body image is
an essential contributor to the development of eating
disorders and the growing problems of adolescent and
adult obesity.
As also pointed out by Smolak (2004), the observed
gender, ethnic, cross-cultural, historical, and age dif-
ferences in levels of body esteem all suggest that cul-
ture and society play a major role in the construction of
body image. Thus theories for the development of
body image in children (Ricciardelli, McCabe, Holt, &
Finemore, 2003; Smolak & Levine, 2001), just like
those in adults, postulate a role for sociocultural factors
(e.g., media, parents, peers) and psychological factors
(e.g., self-esteem, negative affect, autonomy), in addi-
tion to biological factors (e.g., age, BMI).
Smolak and Levine’s (2001) comprehensive model
for the development of body dissatisfaction among
children places a focus on weight and shape as its cen-
tral variable. The extent to which a child focuses on
weight and shape is the result of individual (gender,
BMI) and sociocultural (e.g., comments about body
shape and appearance from family and peers) vari-
ables. Particular messages from parents, peers, or the
media (e.g., that being a certain weight or appearance
will increase their likability) will increase a child’s fo-
cus on weight and shape. In general, it is more likely
that girls (and overweight girls in particular) rather
than boys will receive these messages (Smolak & Le-
vine, 2001). Children’s level of autonomy, or the extent
to which they pursue their own goals as opposed to
pleasing others, is proposed to moderate the impact of
sociocultural factors on weight and shape focus, such
that this relation will be stronger for those girls with
low autonomy. Finally, body dissatisfaction is a likely
outcome of this process as most girls are unable to
match the current standard for an ideal female body.
Of the sociocultural factors identified in Smolak
and Levine’s (2001) model, the majority of previous
research with children has focused on parents and
peers. For example, empirical evidence exists to sup-
port a role for parents in the development of body dis-
satisfaction, both via comments about their child’s ap-
pearance and via modeling behaviors (Smolak, Levine,
& Schermer, 1999). Several other studies have investi-
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology
2007, Vol. 36, No. 1, 76–86
Copyright © 2007 by
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
76
We acknowledge the contribution of the school principals, teach-
ers, parents, and particularly the children at each of the schools in-
volved in the study. The time and effort taken to participate in the
study were greatly appreciated.
Correspondence should be addressed to Levina Clark, Flinders
University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, SA 5001 Australia. E-mail:
Levina.Clark@flinders.edu.au

gated the behavior of peers, including comments about
appearance, modeling, and teasing (e.g., Dohnt &
Tiggemann, 2005; Vander Wal & Thelen, 2001). In a
sample of girls in Grades 3 to 5, Oliver and Thelen
(1996) found that girls’ belief that being thinner would
make them more popular predicted higher weight con-
cerns. Not surprisingly, teasing about appearance has
also been shown to be related to body dissatisfaction in
children (Fabian & Thompson, 1989).
Among adolescents, the role of conversations about
appearance among peers has been investigated. In her
book Fat Talk, Nichter (2000) described the dialogue
about body image that many girls and women engage
in. Further, Jones, Vigfusdottir, and Lee (2004) de-
scribed the concept of an appearance culture among
adolescents in which media ideals and peer conver-
sations reinforce each other. In an earlier study of
younger children (9- to 12-year-old girls), Clark and
Tiggemann (2006) found that conversations about ap-
pearance topics (e.g., the size and shape of girls’ bod-
ies) were related to internalization of appearance ideals
and body dissatisfaction.
Only limited research exists on the influence of the
mass media on body dissatisfaction in children. In an
early study, Martin and Kennedy (1993) reported that
girls between the ages of 8 and 11 compared them-
selves to fashion models and other media images and
felt bad about the comparison. Another study (Field et
al., 1999) reported that the use of magazines to obtain
weight and beauty information was related to poor
body image in elementary-school girls. Further, Sands
and Wardle (2003) found that media exposure was re-
lated to awareness of the thin ideal in 9- to 12-year-old
girls.
Thus, parents, peers, and the media are all potential
contributors to children’s body image. The first aim of
this study was to further explore the relation of two
sociocultural variables (media and peers) to body dis-
satisfaction in children. In particular, appearance con-
versations among peers were investigated in addition
to exposure to appearance television and magazines. In
an earlier study using an independent sample, Clark
and Tiggemann (2006) found that in 9- to 12-year-old
girls, exposure to appearance media did not predict
body dissatisfaction directly but was predictive of con-
versations about appearance, which in turn predicted
body dissatisfaction. We concluded in that instance
that media and peers were related in their relation to
body dissatisfaction as appearance ideals informed by
the media are likely to be discussed and reinforced
among friends. This combined influence of peers and
media supported the notion of an “appearance culture”
among preadolescents, similar to that described by
Jones et al. (2004) among adolescents.
The second aim of this study was to further explore
the individual difference variable of autonomy as intro-
duced in Smolak and Levine’s (2001) model of chil-
dren’s body image development. To our knowledge,
the role of autonomy has yet to be explicitly examined
in relation to body image across any age group. A mod-
erating variable such as autonomy, however, is able to
explain why levels of young girls’ body dissatisfaction
can vary despite similar levels of exposure to universal
sociocultural variables (e.g., mass media). Smolak and
Levine described autonomy as the extent to which a
child needs to be liked or to please others. This is akin
to Noom, Dekovic, and Meeus’s (2001) definition of
emotional autonomy among adolescents as a percep-
tion of emotional independence from parents and peers
related to an internal locus of control and is similar to
the concepts of resistance to peer pressure (Steinberg
& Silverberg, 1986), social independence (Flammer,
1991), and self-determination. Although having great-
er autonomy is likely to foster higher self-esteem
(Litovsky & Dusek, 1985; Nielsen & Metha, 1994),
autonomy is argued to be distinct from the concept of
self-esteem, which refers to the evaluative component
of self-concept involving judgments about self-worth
and the feelings associated with those judgments
(Berk, 2000). In this study it was predicted that the
need to be liked or please others (low autonomy) would
strengthen the effect of sociocultural variables on body
dissatisfaction in young girls, whereas high levels of
autonomy would offer a buffer against such socio-
cultural influence.
The final and major aim of the study was to explore
the means by which the media and peers have their im-
pact on body dissatisfaction. As described by Levine
and Smolak (1996), many models of body dissatisfac-
tion focus on sociocultural influences but do not spec-
ify the mechanisms of influence. Among adolescents,
Tiggemann (2005) identified social comparison, inter-
nalization of the thin ideal, and the development of ap-
pearance schemas as possible mechanisms. Internal-
ization of the thin ideal (Thompson & Stice, 2001), or
the extent to which individuals adopt and accept the
current socially defined ideal of thinness as an ideal for
themselves, has been found to mediate between socio-
cultural variables and body dissatisfaction among ado-
lescents (Keery, van den Berg, & Thompson, 2004). In
children, Sands and Wardle (2003) found that internal-
ization mediated the relation between awareness of a
sociocultural standard of appearance and body dissat-
isfaction in 9- to 12-year-old girls.
One mechanism that has not yet been explored
among children is the development of schemas for ap-
pearance (Altabe & Thompson, 1996; Cash, 1996;
Cash & Labarge, 1996). An appearance schema is de-
fined as a cognitive representation of body image, in-
cluding the beliefs that individuals hold about appear-
ance and the importance of their appearance in their
life (Cash, 1996). Cash (2002) maintained that such
body image investment should be distinguished from
body image evaluation, which relates only to the level
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ROLE OF APPEARANCE SCHEMAS