Peer Culture and Body Image Concern Among Australian Adolescent Girls: A Hierarchical Linear Modelling Analysis

Abstract

Peers may influence the body image concerns and disordered eating behaviours of adolescent girls through the creation of appearance cultures within friendship cliques. The present study investigates the role of friendship cliques and school gender composition in impacting upon adolescent girls' body image concern and disordered eating behaviours, using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM), a statistical procedure employed in the analysis of nested data. A sample of 156 girls was drawn from four private schools located in the capital city of Western Australia (one single-sex school and three mixed-sex schools). Eighty students from the single-sex school and 76 female students from the mixed-sex schools, comprising 35 friendship cliques, completed questionnaires assessing body image, disordered eating, and a range of variables that have previously been associated with body image concern and disordered eating, including appearance-based social comparison, frequency of appearancebased conversation, appearance-based criticism, friends' concern with thinness, media influence and media pressure. Hierarchical linear modelling analyses found that friendship cliques in all-girls schools exhibited similar levels of body image concern and dieting behaviours, with various peer and other media influence variables accounting for these similarities. Friendship cliques in mixed-sex schools were not found to be similar with regard to body image concern or disordered eating. These findings support the notion that friendship groups can be an important source of influence on the body image concerns of adolescent girls in single-sex schools, and show that both individual and friendship clique level measures of attitudes and behaviours make independent contributions to the prediction of these body image concerns.

Body Esteem among Korean Adolescent Boys and Girls

“…Peer pressure was directly associated with body esteem for boys, but was indirectly associated with body esteem via internalization for girls. These results support the findings of previous studies which reported a positive relation between peer pressure for thinness and body dissatisfaction [69][70][71][72]. Choo [73] argued that the individuals' body satisfaction is not determined by objective body measurements, but by sociocultural criteria, and that the evaluation of one's own body is based on one's interactions with others.…”

The Effects of Self-Esteem and Influence of Friends via Social Media on Body Image Amongst Children

“…On the other hand, the study found that the H 3 is supported where friend do influence the body comparison on social media. This interesting finding supports most past findings where positive friend influence would have positively boosts perception of body image (Carey et al, 2013, Halliwell et al, 2011. Study also shows H 4 where friend influence was identified to give direct impact on body image.…”

“…Social influences determine user behaviours on social media platforms where individuals tend to coordinate their behaviours to conform to social norms and mimicking (Zhou, 2011;Lewis et al, 2008;Cheung et al, 2015). Equal to the effects of thin-ideal media, peers who closely match the thin-ideal pose an equivalent risk of developing body dissatisfaction in women, because they are perceived to exhibit a more personally attainable ideal compared to models or celebrities (Carey et al, 2013;Halliwell et al, 2011). Apart from direct criticisms of thinness, conversations about thinness with peers, indirect competition for potential partners also affect and risk cultivating unfavourable norms (i.e.…”

How Do Individual Predispositions and Family Dynamics Contribute to Academic Adjustment Through the Middle School Years? The Mediating Role of Friends’ Characteristics

“…Once the friendship has formed, these similarities may be reinforced through socialization processes occurring between the individuals (Altermatt & Pomerantz, 2003;Hartup, 1989;Kandel, 1978). During adolescence, friends tend to share common social and behavioral characteristics, such as academic success and motivation, dropout rates, teen pregnancy rates, externalizing problems such as aggression, delinquency or drug use, internalizing problems and body image issues (Cairns, Cairns, Neckerman, Gest, & Gariépy, 1988;Carey, Donaghue, & Broderick, 2013;Cillessen & Borch, 2008;Kistner, Balthazor, Risi, & Burton, 1999;Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006;Urberg, Değirmencioğlu, & Pilgrim, 1997). In other words, adolescents choose their peers according to preexisting characteristics (selection process), and over time their resemblance with these chosen peers may increase and influence their ulterior adjustment (socialization).…”