Sociocultural influences of parents on body dissatisfaction in adolescents

Abstract

The basic goal of this research was to evaluate sociocultural influence of parents on general body dissatisfaction among their adolescent children. The sample comprised (N = 228) of both male and female adolescents aged between 16-19 years. In this study, two measuring instruments were applied: Body image and body change inventory and the Perceived Sociocultural Influences on Body Image and Body Change Questionnaire. These instruments show internal consistency of high reliability, which makes them applicable to the Serbian population. According to results of the correlational analysis, there is a mild correlation between predictor variables (influence of mother and influence of father) and the criteria general body dissatisfaction. The applied hierarchical regression analysis showed that predictor variables explain 22% of the total variance of general body dissatisfaction. It was also established that variables (female gender, sociocultural influence of parents on body image and change in physical appearance) present significant predictors of overall body dissatisfaction in late adolescence. The majority of the obtained findings is in accordance with results from previous studies, and should provide directions for predicting body image and perceptive sociocultural contributions on body image, as well as designing programs of prevention regarding body dissatisfaction in adolescents of both genders.