The use of the sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire with middle school boys and girls

Abstract

Objective To assess the psychometric validity of versions of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ) designed for use with middle school girls and boys. Method As part of a larger study, the SATAQ was administered to 505 middle school children. To assess concurrent validity, scales concerning the use of Weight Control and Muscle Building Techniques as well as the Body Esteem Scale (BES) were also administered. Body mass index (BMI) was also calculated. Results Both the girls and boys versions of the SATAQ showed adequate validity. Two SATAQ subscales, Internalization and Awareness of societal ideals of thinness, were identified for girls. For boys, three SATAQ subscales were identified: Internalization and Awareness of a muscular, non‐fat ideal and a scale tapping the the importance of a Muscular Look. The subscales and total score showed acceptable concurrent validity. Even after controlling for BMI, they contributed significant explained variance for the use of Weight Control Techniques in both boys and girls and use of Muscle Building Techniques in boys. Patterns of relationships among variables differed by gender. Discussion The results suggest that sociocultural influences play a role in the use of Weight Control and Muscle Building Techniques for middle school boys although their influence is not as strong as it is for the use of Weight Control Techniques by middle school girls. The SATAQ seems to be an adequate measure of the nature of some of these influences. © 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 29: 216–223, 2001.

Children's weight-loss camps: psychological benefit or jeopardy?

“…7,8 More recent research suggests that boys are not in fact immune to body image concerns, and that they also want to either lose or gain weight, according to their body size. 9 Until the mid-1990s the evidence on the relation between obesity and self-esteem in children was surprisingly inconsistent. 10 However, subsequent research has shown reduced global self-worth and reduced physical appearance selfesteem in obese adolescents, 11 obese preadolescents, [12][13][14] and overweight 5 year olds.…”

Girls feeling good at school: School gender environment, internalization and awareness of socio‐cultural attitudes associations with self‐esteem in adolescent girls

“…In this study, the Cronbach's alpha value was 0.50 for the awareness scale and 0.86 for the internalization scale. The SATAQ original was used and not the SATAQ-3 as the original has been validated in young adolescents, the same age group as the current sample (Smolak, Levine, & Thompson, 2001). …”

“…Adolescent girls with greater internalization of media ideals report greater appearance conversations with friends and more peer appearance criticism when exposed to magazines with an emphasis on appearance (Jones, et al, 2004). Evidence consistently suggests internalization of thin ideals predict a drive for thinness and high body dissatisfaction (Smolak, Levine, & Thompson, 2001;Bearman, Presnell, Martinez, & Stice, 2006) with exposure to the media and internalization being highly salient mechanisms supporting body image concerns and subsequently overall self-esteem (Grabe, et al, 2008). As such, a study in girls aged 11-16-years found experimental exposure to either ultra-thin or average size magazine models lowered body image satisfaction and consequently self-esteem (Clay, et al, 2005).…”

Biopsychosocial Model of Dietary Restraint in Early Adolescent Boys

“…Thus, how boys' evaluate their bodies would be strongly influenced by how closely they approximate these internalized ideals, and they would be highly motivated to engage in behaviors that would decrease real-ideal discrepancies. Achieving (or not) their internalized ideals would influence their self-perceptions and identities (Crocker, 2002;Smolak, Levine, & Thompson, 2001;Leary, 2010;Vartanian, Herman, & Polivy, 2007, 2008). …”