Perception of Parental Assessments of Appearance in Connection with Concern among High School Students

Abstract

The article is devoted to the role of physical appearance (PA) parental assessments in the formation of PA concern in youth. Analysis of the works done earlier in this field showed an insufficiency of empirical researches in Russian social psychology devoted to the PA concern among high school students in connection with their ideas about parents’ evaluation of their PA. The results of the empirical research on this problem are presented (112 male and female respondents, 16—17 years old). We tested the hypothesis of the significant differences presence in the perceptions of PA estimates by parents among high school students with varying degrees of PA concern. Diagnostic techniques: «Concern» scale of the «Attitude to one’s appearance» questionnaire; the method of «Estimating and meaningful interpretation of the appearance» (V.A. Labunskaya). Significant differences were revealed in the views of high school students about their PA assessment by parents. In the group of respondents with the high degree of PA concern dominated the opinion that their fathers did not highly appreciate a number of their PA components and characteristics, namely: face and physique; decor; the attractiveness of design for the opposite sex, and as to mothers — they do not highly appreciate PA design.