Racial Differences in Predictors of College Women's Body Image Attitudes

Abstract

African-American and Euro-American women from three predominantly Euro-American colleges in the southeast U.S. between 17 and 23 years of age completed instruments assessing body image attitudes, social competence, sex-role attitudes, racial identity, and a measure of family and personal characteristics. Analyses revealed race differences on all body image measures with the exception of appearance evaluation which was influenced by family income and race. Specifically, African-American women reported more satisfaction with and positive feelings towards their bodies and less dissatisfaction than Euro-American women. Unlike Euro-Americans, African-American women attached importance to fitness and health. The relationship between personal/physical factors and body image was stronger for African-American than Euro-American women. Additionally, personal/physical characteristics were the best model of appearance evaluation for African-American women, whereas personal/physical and sociodemographic factors best predicted this measure for Euro-American women. The results are discussed in relation to body image norms and standards of the African-American subculture and middle-class, Euro-American mainstream culture.

Women’s Precollege Sports Participation, Enjoyment of Sports, and Self-esteem

“…Indeed, racial/ethnic variations in women's body image and endorsement of gender-typed traits (Harris, 1994;Myers, 1989) are reasons to suspect that any effect of sport participation on self-esteem could vary across populations and that our findings may not be at all "normative" for Women of Color. 2 Thus, future researchers might strive to oversample participants from minority groups and to treat the diverse racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds of study participants as integral to model building rather than simply assuming that a middle-class cultural context represents the norm for all young women.…”

Comparisons of body image dimensions by race/ethnicity and gender in a university population

“…Some research suggests that, among African Americans, the ideal body size is larger than among European Americans and that size is less salient in judging attractiveness (Harris, Walters, & Waschull, 1991;Powell & Kahn, 1995). Two studies of men and women (Gray, 1977;Harris et al, 1991) and three of women only (Abrams, Allen, & Gray, 1993;Akan & Grilo, 1995;Harris, 1994) have found African American college students to have a more positive body image than the White students. Although the majority of research to date has examined women, some studies have indicated that European American men tend to be significantly more dissatisfied with their body weight than Black men (Gray et al, 1987;Harris et al, 1991).…”

Body Image: A Study in a Tri-Ethnic Sample of Low Income Women

“…In addition, the current literature has focused almost exclusively on body satisfaction and perceptions of ideal bodies and has neglected behavioral and affective components of body image. For example, only three studies included assessments of appearance investment (Harris, 1994;Miller et al, 2000;Smith et al, 1999), defined as the perceived importance of appearance, and documented the frequency of appearance-related behaviors (Cash, Thériault, & Annis, 2004). Of these studies, only one employed a non-college sample and included European Americans and African Americans (Smith et al, 1999).…”