Body image in female high school students: Reexamination with new figural stimuli

Abstract

This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of body image of Japanese high school girls and the relationship between body dissatisfaction and the desire to lose weight using objective silhouette figures developed based on real and objective data from Japanese girls. Additionally, the girls' body image was also examined by male high school students. A total of 169 female and 148 male high school students were asked to respond to several body images using an objective silhouette figure. The female high school students also responded to items measuring body dissatisfaction and the desire to lose weight. The results confirmed that the girls had not overestimated their body image and that they idealized a body shape considerably slimmer than their current body shape. The results also suggest that cognition rather than substance of body shape is related to body dissatisfaction and the desire to lose weight. Furthermore, the results also indicated that estimation gaze by same-sex rather than opposite-sex is essential in determining the ideal image.