Body image amongst adolescents in grade 8 and 9 (in Swedish)
Authors: Sara Berggren och Maria Stenered
Supervisor: Sabina Kapeanovic
Abstract
Previous research show that there are distortions in young people’s body image in relation to BMI. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate how factors such as gender, mental illness and relationships with parents and friends interact with body image. The following questions were investigated: (a) What are common youth groups based on their BMI and body image?; (b) Are there gender differences among the youth groups?; (c) How do these youth groups interact with mental illness as well as relationships with parents and friends? The current study has received its material from the research program Longitudinal Research on Development in Adolescence (LoRDIA). The quantitative data was collected from 1324 children currently attending grade 8 and 9. To investigate how adolescents body image interacts with the above factors, the data were analysed with cluster analysis, one-way ANOVA test, Chi2 -test, Bonferroni's Post-hoc test and mean plot. The results of this study revealed that there are distortions in adolescents body image and we also discovered that there were gender differences between the various youth groups. It also emerged that mental illness as well as relationships with parents and friends varied among the youth groups.
This research is financed by:
Swedish Research Council, FORTE, VINNOVA, Formas
