Body dissatisfaction during middle childhood
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Date
30/11/2022Author
Wojcik, Zuzana
Metadata
Abstract
Body dissatisfaction is a prevalent concern in modern societies and can lead to
significant and long-term health difficulties. This paper is divided into two parts and evaluates
aspects of body dissatisfaction during middle childhood. The first part provides a systematic
review of the published literature examining body dissatisfaction during middle childhood.
The inclusion criteria were any quantitative studies that recruited children aged six to nine
years, measured body dissatisfaction and at least one other biopsychosocial variable. A total
of 31 studies were selected for the review. It was found that body dissatisfaction is prevalent
in children as young as six years, and that body image concerns increase with age. BMI was
the most consistent predictive risk factor for later body dissatisfaction, and longitudinal
studies showed that higher BMI predicts greater body image difficulties. For the second part
of this paper, an empirical study was conducted to examine the relationship between parental
and child's body dissatisfaction and how some of the parental behaviours are associated with
the child's self-reported body dissatisfaction. A sample of 250 parent-child dyads of children
aged 6 to 9 years completed an online survey where parents were asked to indicate their body
dissatisfaction, body appreciation and answer questions about their explicit (comments to
their child and teasing about the child's weight), implicit (parental modelling of own body
dissatisfaction and weight-loss strategies) behaviours, and parental feeding practices.
Children were asked to indicate their perceived current and ideal body size. Results indicated
that parental body dissatisfaction was positively associated with their child's body
dissatisfaction. Moreover, all parental weight-related behaviours correlated with the child's
reports of body dissatisfaction. However, mediation analysis revealed that none of the three
proposed parental behaviours mediate the relationship between parental and child body
dissatisfaction. In conclusion, body dissatisfaction develops well before adolescence, and
children's and parental body dissatisfaction are already associated by the age of 6 to 9 years.
Early intervention programmes should empower parents to foster positive body image to
their children during middle childhood.