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Effect of gender composition of school on body concerns in adolescent women
Author(s) -
Tiggemann Marika
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(200103)29:2<239::aid-eat1015>3.0.co;2-a
Subject(s) - psychology , ideal (ethics) , single sex , developmental psychology , private school , composition (language) , social psychology , mathematics education , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology
Objective This study aimed to investigate the role of gender composition of school on body figure preferences, eating disorder symptomology, and role concerns. Method Questionnaires were completed by 261 Australian adolescent girls in two private single‐sex and two private coeducational school environments. Results There was no difference in nominated ideal figure or eating disorder scores between the schools. However, girls in the single‐sex schools placed a greater emphasis on achievement than their counterparts at the coeducational schools. These role concerns had a differential impact on prediction of the ideal figure, whereby the importance placed on intelligence and professional success predicted the choice of a thinner ideal figure for the single‐sex schools, but a larger ideal for the coeducational schools. Discussion It was concluded that the motivation for thinness differs between single‐sex and coeducational schools. © 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 29: 239–243, 2001.