Body schema activation for self-other matching in youth

Barbie’s new look: Exploring cognitive body representation among female children and adolescents

“…Few experimental studies have examined the cognitive processing of body-related information during media exposure among youth. As reviewed earlier, however, the results of a recent study suggest that body-part compatibility effects emerge around the age of 10 years, but only for bodies of children of the same gender and of similar ages [50]. These findings suggest that children are able to engage in self-other matching, but only for socially-relevant stimuli perceived as similar to themselves.…”

“…In support of the notion that the body-part compatibility effect indexes body-schema activation and the self-other body matching mechanisms that may be involved in social comparisons, the presence and magnitude of the effect has been shown to be determined by the species and posture of the model in the image [35,49], the tendency for the observer to engage in social comparison [31], and the age and gender of the observer and model [50]. While most of the body-part compatibility work to date has focused on adult participants, Pacione et al [50] asked male and female children and adolescents to complete a body-part compatibility effect task when viewing images of 7, 11, and 15 years old males [50]. The authors found a peer group effect in that the male participants aged 10–12 and aged 13–16 years old showed body-part compatibility effects only when they viewed the images of the 11 year old and 15 year old male, respectively.…”

“…Specifically, the body schema develops based on the sensory information provided by the moving body and socially formed images of the body (e.g., peer interactions, family interactions, magazine and television exposure) [28,36]. As a result, the body-part compatibility effect may not emerge for every viewed body for people of every age and, as mentioned, may be influenced by the individuals’ tendency to engage in social comparison as well as the characteristics of the body that is observed [31,50]. For example, in their recent investigation, Pila et al [31] utilized the body-part compatibility task to test the automatic and involuntary nature of appearance-based social comparisons among young adult women (18–25 years old) during exposure to physique-salient media images–female models with ideal, average or above average body sizes wearing bikinis [31].…”

“…Although body-part compatibility effects have been observed among older adolescents and young adults [48,50], the effects are relatively understudied among children and younger adolescents [31,35]. Further, it is unknown how and if these social comparison processes are activated when these females view any of the Barbie dolls with different body types.…”

“…To achieve each of these objectives, the present study was designed to determine whether the body-part compatibility effect emerges when young girls view images of Barbie with different body types, and whether age moderates any effects. Guided by social comparison [18] and self-schema [19] theories, and based on recent evidence for the implicit processing of physique-salient images [31,50], it was hypothesized that the body-part compatibility effect (observed by faster RTs for body-part compatible trials than on incompatible trials) would emerge when participants were exposed to images of the “petite” Barbie (Hypothesis 1). Although none of the Barbie doll proportions are considered child-like, the short stature of the petite Barbie doll, in comparison to the other Barbie dolls, more closely resembles the body type of a female child and/or adolescent, and may be perceived by participants as the most self-relevant.…”