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Body image importance and body dissatisfaction among Indigenous Australian adolescents

journal contribution
posted on 2004-09-01, 00:00 authored by David MellorDavid Mellor, M McCabe, L Ricciardelli, Kylie BallKylie Ball
Despite their elevated risk of health problems and a propensity to be more overweight or underweight relative to the other members of the Australian population, there has been no previous investigation of body image concerns among Indigenous Australians. In this study we investigated the level of body image importance and body image dissatisfaction among 19 rural Indigenous adolescents (7 males, 12 females) and 28 urban Indigenous adolescents (15 males and 13 females). Our hypotheses that there would be gender differences in body image importance and body image satisfaction were not generally supported. However, males placed more importance on muscle size and strength than females, and rural participants placed more importance on weight than urban participants. Comparison to existing data obtained from Caucasian adolescents suggested that Indigenous youth may be less concerned and dissatisfied with body weight and shape. These results are discussed in relation to findings from studies of non-Indigenous adolescents, and Indigenous health issues. The limitations of the current study and the need for further studies are also discussed.

History

Journal

Body image

Volume

1

Issue

3

Pagination

289 - 297

Publisher

Elsevier BV

Location

Oxford, England

ISSN

1740-1445

eISSN

1873-6807

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2004, Elsevier BV

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