Bodies in Transition: A Demographic Analysis of Body Image Disturbance in Adolescence

Jenny Godley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Developmental psychologists argue that body image disturbance is a normal part of the transition to adulthood for adolescent girls. However, national prevalence rates are speculative, and little is known about gender and racial differences in the occurrence and correlates of body image disturbance. Using nationally representative data (Add Health), this paper provides a demographic analysis of adolescent body image. I first explore the prevalence of distorted body image among American adolescents. Twenty percent of adolescent girls think they are overweight when they are not, while eleven percent of boys have a distorted body image in the opposite direction. Racial and ethnic patterns of adolescent body misperception differ by gender. I then model the developmental and social structural correlates of body image disturbance. These correlates also differ by race and gender. This research, which takes a demographic approach to a developmental issue, illustrates that the transition to adulthood is socially patterned.