Body-size dissatisfaction: Individual differences in age and gender, and relationship with self-esteem

This study investigated the effect of individual differences in age and gender on body-size dissatisfaction. Ss were presented with a set of nine silhouette drawings ranging from very thin to very fat. In an Australian replication of Fallon and Rozin (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 102-105, 1985), young adult women rated their current figure as significantly larger than their ideal and attractive figures, whereas there was no difference in ratings for young adult men. However, in contrast to the finding of Rozin and Fallon (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 342-345, 1988), the same pattern of gender differences emerged for mature women and men. Furthermore, only for the older women was body dissatisfaction correlated with self-esteem. It was suggested that body weight may carry different meaning for women of different ages.