The Relationship Between Race and Body Image Concerns Among Adolescents

by

Zaitian (Cara) Chen

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Zaitian (Cara) Chen

Zaitian (Cara) Chen (she/her/hers) is a senior student at Wesleyan, majoring in Government, Psychology, and the College of East Asian Studies. She is an international student coming from Beijing, China. She can speak Mandarin, and English, and has learned Japanese at Wesleyan for four years. She is also the co-leader of KDC for 2022-2023, an on-campus non-experienced dancer student group. She will go to Fletcher School at Tufts University to pursue further studies in international relations after her graduation from Wesleyan.

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Abstract: Body image concerns are dissatisfaction withone’s body shape and size in terms of weight, body dissatisfaction is considered to be the most contributing factor to eating disorders (Presnell, et al., 2004).  Eating disorders are often overlooked but they are more deadly and prevalent than people’s perception. At the same time, it is acknowledged that body image concerns or body dissatisfaction vary across racial groups. It is vital to learn about the differences between racial groups on the topic of body image concerns so that specific intervention programs can be created and implemented. This research utilized sample from the first wave of The U.S. National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (ADDHEALTH), which is representative of adolescents in grades 7-12. The results reveal that race is associated with self-impression of one’s weight and respective weight control behaviors, as indicated by the chi-square tests’ results. They showed that Black or African American and Asian American and Pacific Islander respondents have fewer odds to consider themselves to be overweight compared to the white respondents, whereas being American Indians or Native Americans is not significantly related to the outcome variable. Moreover, the above results stayed true after controlling gender; Gender is also significantly associated with self-impression of one’s weight. To be specific, Female has more odds to consider one to be overweight than male, controlled for race. 

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