Body Image and its Relation with the

Concept of Physical Self Among Adolescents

and Young Adults
Rituparna Chakraborty & Sonali De

Psychological Studies
ISSN 0033-2968
Psychol Stud
DOI 10.1007/s12646-014-0268-4

1 23

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Psychol Stud
DOI 10.1007/s12646-014-0268-4

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS

Body Image and its Relation with the Concept of Physical Self
Among Adolescents and Young Adults
Rituparna Chakraborty & Sonali De

Received: 31 October 2013 / Accepted: 19 June 2014

# National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2014

Abstract This study examined the degree of body image

satisfaction and its relationship with physical self concept
among adolescents and young adults (n=120) with normalweight. Analysis of data indicated that majority of the participants were dissatisfied with their body image, with highest
dissatisfaction in adult males. In contrast the adolescents with
body image dissatisfaction significantly differed from those
who were satisfied regarding their views about physical self.
Implications of the findings are discussed.
Keywords Body image dissatisfaction . Physical
self-concept . Self-esteem

Introduction
Body may be considered as one of the media of selfexpression and it is through the fashioning of ones body that
individuals become selves. However, the view about body
is no more confined to the thinking that it as a product of
nature or as possession of the self; it is rather being
reconfigured by market forces. Body can be considered to
be the site of uncontrollable desires kept under control through
the use of heterogeneous discourses, a site where different
discourses are practiced and contested. There is an illusion of
a substantial unity about body, but bodies are always subject
to change and can never be regarded as natural (Foucault,
R. Chakraborty
Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya
Prafulla Chandra Rd, Kolkata 700009, India
e-mail: crituparna02@yahoo.in
S. De (*)
Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, 92, Acharya
Prafulla Chandra Rd, Kolkata 700009, India
e-mail: sonalide2002@yahoo.com

1990). Body image, a multidimensional construct describing

an individuals mental representation of his or her own body,
is the mental image one holds of oneself, which includes
perception and attitudes related to body and physical appearance (Cash and Pruzinsky 1990; Garner and Garfinkel 1981).
The notion of ideal figure has been changing with time.
Today the Indian men and women are becoming more and more
susceptible to media influences (Shroff and Thompson 2004).
Mostly womens ideal body size in India is fatter than the ideals
of Western societies. The Indian women are much concerned
about the weight of their upper torso rather than abdomens, hips,
thighs or legs (Gupta et al. 2001). With time these ideals are also
changing with current representations of zero-figured heroines
and successful women athletes. The Indian men previously
preferred a medium sized strong built. A little fat didnt bother
them. But current media representations of fatless men with sixpack abdomen and athletic built has also influenced mens
choice of ideal figure, as can be seen in current Indian mens
fashion statements (Body shapers for men 2012).
Body image dissatisfaction (BID) is conceptualized as the
discrepancy between current and ideal body size estimates
(Amburgey 2009). The controversy over whether dissatisfaction with ones body image gets generated in the early years of
life or it is something that develops with age, still continues.
While early theorists proposed the presence of conflicts regarding ones body image in the very early years of life (like in
Mirror Stage) (Lacan 1996), recent researches hold that is
prominent only in the later years (Amburgey 2009).
Although body dissatisfaction is generally believed to be
developed by women (Green and Pritchard 2003), it is also
visible in men, even sometimes they are more dissatisfied than
women (Abell and Richards 1996). People usually develop
evaluative concepts about the acceptability and appeal of their
physical attributes- such as their height, weight, facial features, and overall appearance through explicit or implicit
social feedback.

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BID is probably more often reported in individuals with

history of eating disorder (Smolak and Thompson 2009);
however, the question may be raised here whether people with
normal weight are free from BID. Body being a major part of
ones existence, it is quite expected that ones satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with own body may be related to his/her concept of self. Height, weight, girth, eye color, complexion, and
general body proportions are very much related to feelings of
personal adequacy. So it is quite probable that self-concept
may get modified with ones perception of appropriate body
composition, physical fitness, involvement in physical activities and physical skills (Fox and Corbin 1989). It is debatable
whether satisfaction or dissatisfaction with ones body image
can be considered as the sole factor influencing ones physical
self-concept. While some studies reported that the components of physical self concept, like physical activity, health,
appearance, and self-esteem are in some way or other found to
be related to satisfaction or dissatisfaction with ones body
(Davis and Cowles 1991), others noted that self-concept is
related to factors like, age, sex, academic achievement, and
socioeconomic status (Hamachek 1978).
Controversy exists regarding the relative influence of BID
on the different components of physical self-concept among
individuals of different age and gender groups. Satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with body has been noted to be associated with
ability to perform physical activity well, sport participation,
self reported health condition, coordination and appearance/
attractiveness (Sharma et al. 2007), but uncertainty remains
about how far this statement can be generalized, as gender and
age differences regarding these factors exist; e.g. components
like physical activity and sports participation are more related
to body satisfaction among males (Guyot et al. 1981), while
attractiveness is related to body image more in case of females
(Jones et al. 2004).
Self-esteem may be affected by inability to attain ideals in
specific domains (physical, social or academic) of selfperception, as in the case of physical domain, body dissatisfaction may have a relation with ones self-esteem. Most of the
researches dealing with the relation between self-esteem and
body image dissatisfaction found that individuals with body
image dissatisfaction have low self-esteem, but in most studies
this has been found to be truer for females and further for
adolescent girls than adult women (Connors and Casey 2006).
Researches dealing with the relation between self concept and BID present conflicting findings for people of all
weight ranges. Although some studies have found greater
Body Mass Index (BMI) being associated with significantly lower self-concept (Drake 1988; Mendelson and White
1985), other studies failed to find any such relationship
(Rumpel and Harris 1994). Though many studies have
looked into the relationship between self-concept and body
image dissatisfaction, controversy still exists necessitating
further research.

Most researches on Indian population (Khandelwal et al.

1995; Robinson et al. 1996) have focused on BID in the
people with eating disorders or risks of developing eating
disorders. In the present study an attempt has been made to
cognize the occurrence of BID among Indian adolescents and
adults of both genders, without any eating disorder. As literatures show that BID is frequent among these age groups,
these groups were compared in the present study to find out
whether age and maturity contribute in ones concept of
physical self. Also, the study investigated the relationship
between BID and perceived physical self.

Methods
Participants
The participants were 120 individuals equally drawn from two
age (adolescent and young adult) and gender groups. The
adolescents (Mean age: Boys 15.26 yrs., SD=0.75; Girls=
15.40 yrs., SD=0.92) were chosen from a renowned school of
Calcutta. The young adults (Mean age: Males: 23.5 yrs., SD=
1.2; Female: 23.17, SD=0.83) were students of university
post-graduate departments. All the participants were free from
eating disorder or any other major physical or psychological
ailment and had normal weight range (decided by calculating
their BMI and comparing it to the norm of WHO), of middle
socio-economic status and all were students.

Measures
Body Image The Body Image Assessment Scale, developed
by Williamson et al. (1989), was administered to assess body
image dissatisfaction. It has nine male and nine female figures
ranging from very thin to obese categories. Each figure has an
alphabet written under it. The alphabets range from A to I,
where A denotes the figure that is very thin and I denotes
the obese figure. Individuals are asked some questionswhich figure looks most like their current figure, which one
looks like the ideal figure according to them, which figure
they expect to look like. The discrepancy between the alphabet denoting perceived current figure and the alphabet
denoting perceived ideal figure is considered as the measure
of body image dissatisfaction. The test-retest reliability was
found to be 0.90 for CBS (current body size) and 0.71 for IBS
(ideal body size) scores by Williamson et al. (1989). Such
figure rating scales make use of only pictorial items without
use of words or necessitating verbal responses and thus can be
considered as culture fair (Domino and Domino 2006). BIA
has been used in several studies in different cultures (Fingeret
et al. 2004; Talwar et al. 2012).

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The Physical Self The Physical Self Description

Questionnaire, Devised by Marsh, Richards, Johnson, Roche
and Tremayne (1994), was used to assess physical self concept. It has 70 items that are distributed in 11 subscales. Of
these 11 sub-scales, 1 measures global self-esteem, of the
remaining 10 while 1 measures self-perceptions of global
physical competence/ concept (named - general physical
self-concept), the other 9 are designed to tap perceptions
of self related to specific areas of physical fitness and
competence. Each item is a simple declarative statement
in which responses vary along a 6-point true-false response scale. The PSDQ was designed initially for adolescents, but it is also suitable for adults (Marsh et al.
2007). The reliability coefficient was found to be 0.8 for
each subscale. The factor structure was replicable across
the two genders (Marsh et al. 1997). Cross-cultural validity for this scale has been evaluated by Marsh et al., who
observed its reasonable applicability on large samples of
Australia, Spain, Turkey participants (2002). They used it
for both western and non-western (Asian) participants
(Marsh et al. 2007).
Procedure
Initially 200 participants of the four groups were approached
at their educational institutions. The nature of the study was
explained to them and confidentiality was assured. The demographic details including family income, height and current
weight, history of eating disorder and psychiatric or physical
illness were obtained using personal information schedules.
Those who did not match the inclusion criteria and/or befitted
the exclusion criteria were excluded from the sample. From
those who matched the criteria, 30 participants for each group
were randomly selected. Body Image Assessment Scale was
individually administered to the finally selected participants.
Subsequently Physical Self Description Questionnaire was
given to them. For further statistical treatment all the four
groups were further divided into body image satisfied (those
who didnt differ in their choice of current figure and ideal
figure in the BIA scale) and dissatisfied (those who had
different choices as current and ideal figure) subgroups, on
the basis of analysis of Body Image Assessment Scale.

Data Analysis
From the responses of participants on the measure of body
image, dissatisfied and satisfied participants in each group
were determined. The median and quartile deviations were
obtained for the different components of physical self concept.
Biserial correlations were computed to determine the correlation between body image satisfaction and components of
physical self concept, for the four groups. U-test was done to

compare the satisfied and dissatisfied participants of the four

groups for the components of physical self concept.

Results
Table 1 shows that majority (60 %) of the participants were
dissatisfied with their body image. This dissatisfaction was
seen to be most frequent in young adult males (83.33 %) and
least frequent in young adult females. Among the adolescent
participants, more boys (63.33 %) were found to be dissatisfied with their body image than girls (50 %).
Tables 2 shows that the participants dissatisfied with their
body image had different views about various aspects of
physical self concept than those who were satisfied with their
body, but this difference is significant in case of adolescent
individuals, unlike young adult participants.
Table 3 shows that sports competence and self-esteem
subscales of measure of physical self are found to be significantly negatively correlated with body image for adolescent
boys and young adult female groups of participants
respectively.

Discussion
The dilemma of body image begins with individuals own
perception of body: while a positive image may induce confidence and ease; a negative one puts a question mark on the
self-worth. Perhaps the widely reported association between
BMI and BID (Watkins et al. 2008) cannot be over generalized, in view of the fact that normal weight individuals are also
seen to have dissatisfaction with their body image (Dolan et al.
1987).
The present study shows that majority (60 %) of the participants, despite being in normal weight range, were dissatisfied with their body image. In spite of the anticipation that
in India the issue of body image concern is emerging only in
subtle tones (Chowdhury 2007), such findings have been
reported by earlier researches (Kayano et al. 2006), given
the growing consumer culture in India. In this era of globalization India is considered as a growing market and is in the
focus of the multinational corporations, consequently the
global culture is fast emerging. The overflow of commodities
coming from Western world necessitates a western translation
of the ideals of beauty and body. Though the traditional old
values and ethical styling are still in existence yet the young
India is now promptly acclimatizing to the global culture and
style. Researches has shown that dissatisfaction with ones
body image may stem from watching peers and media representations of fashion and beauty (Swami et al. 2010) and it
plausibly involves the concern about how one will be

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Table 1 Showing numbers and percentages of participants in the sample
who were satisfied or dissatisfied with body image
Group

Satisfied

Dissatisfied

Adolescent boys

11

36.67

19

63.33

Adolescent girls
Young adult men
Young adult women
Total

15
5
17
48

50.00
16.67
56.67
40.00

15
25
13
72

50.00
83.33
43.33
60.00

evaluated by others. As the concept of beauty and self is still in

developing phase in adolescence, they are more influenced by

circumstantial demands. Researches show that Indian adolescent

girls absorb the concept of ideal beauty presented by family or
peers (Thompson et al. 1999). As most of these concepts of
beauty are related to outward appearance, adolescent girls who
are dissatisfied with their body image are seen to develop negative views about their appearance.
The present findings show that males are more dissatisfied
with their body image in comparison to females. Research
findings in this respect are not uniform. In some cases females
are found to be more dissatisfied with their body image (Green
et al. 2003), in some cases both males and females were equally
dissatisfied (Stanford and McCabe 2002), whereas in others
males are found to be more dissatisfied with their body image
(Abell and Richards 1996). These variant findings may be
attributed to cultural discrepancies pertaining to body ideals.

Table 2
Showing the median, quartile deviation and U values for the components of physical self concept among satisfied and dissatisfied adolescent participants
of both the genders
Subscales of PSDQ
Adolescent boys
Adolescent girls
Satisfied (n=11) Dissatisfied (n=19) U value
Satisfied (n=15) Dissatisfied (n=15) U value
Q
Mdn
Q
Mdn
0.040* Q
Mdn
Q
Mdn
0.050*
Health
2.00
34.00
2.50
30.00
5.00
32.00
5.50
31.00
Co-Ordination
Physical Activity
Body fat
Sports Competence
General Physical Self Concept
Appearance
Strength
Flexibility
Endurance
Self-Esteem

5.00
7.00
3.50
9.00
3.50
5.00
2.00
4.50
3.00
2.50

23.00
27.00
31.00
22.00
24.00
30.00
25.00
25.00
19.00
31.00

2.50
3.50
5.50
3.50
4.00
4.50
2.50
3.50
4.50
1.50

23.00
28.00
29.00
13.00
23.00
27.00
23.00
21.00
18.0
33.00

0.490
0.030*
0.250
0.250
0.000*
0.300
0.650
0.390
0.120
0.410

3.00
4.50
3.00
5.50
3.00
3.50
2.50
2.50
4.50
3.50

27.00
27.00
31.00
29.00
30.00
29.00
30.00
29.00
28.00
36.00

2.50
4.00
5.50
5.00
7.00
3.00
4.50
3.00
5.00
6.00

27.00
18.00
29.00
19.00
28.00
26.00
28.00
28.00
25.00
34.00

0.070
0.007*
0.267
0.890
0.000*
0.000*
0.000*
0.000*
0.004*
0.006*

Showing the median, quartile deviation and U values for the components of physical self concept among satisfied and dissatisfied young adult
participants of both the genders
Subscales of PSDQ
Young adult men
Young adult women
Satisfied (n=5)
Dissatisfied (n=25) U value
Satisfied (n=17) Dissatisfied (n=13) U value
Q
Mdn
Q
Mdn
0.075
Q
Mdn
Q
Mdn
0.603
Health
1.50
33.00
4.50
37.00
4.50
36.00
2.00
40.00
Co-ordination
2.50
24.00
2.50
26.00
0.101
3.50
25.00
3.00
27.00
0.950
Physical activity
Body fat
Sports competence
General physical self concept
Appearance
Strength
Flexibility
Endurance
Self-esteem
*P<0.05
**p<0.01

3.00
5.50
7.50
3.50
7.00
5.00
6.00
5.50
8.00

14.00
28.00
23.00
25.00
25.00
25.00
20.00
16.00
38.00

6.50
6.00
6.50
3.50
2.50
3.00
4.50
4.00
4.00

16.00
27.00
15.00
27.00
29.00
23.00
27.00
22.00
39.00

0.058
0.880
0.720
0.640
0.960
0.490
0.075
0.130
0.640

2.50
4.50
9.00
1.50
5.00
5.00
2.50
2.50
2.50

19.00
33.00
26.00
29.00
26.00
25.00
25.00
20.00
37.00

2.00
3.00
3.50
4.50
6.00
3.50
3.00
2.00
5.50

20.00
35.00
27.00
30.00
30.00
24.00
26.00
20.00
33.00

0.230
0.380
0.340
0.460
0.580
0.490
0.620
0.740
0.060

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Table 3 Showing the correlation between body image and physical self concept, for the four groups of participants
Adolescent boys

Adolescent girls

young adult men

Young adult women

Health
Coordination
Physical activity
Body fat

0.147
-0.249
-0.327
-0.241

-0.056
-0.080
0.146
-0.226

0.218
0.312
0.234
-0.007

0.097
0.099
-0.112
0.101

Sports competence
General physical self concept
Appearance
Strength
Flexibility
Endurance
Self-esteem

-0.436*
-0.285
-0.121
-0.168
-0.185
-0.172
0.179

0.148
-0.347
-0.218
-0.331
-0.168
-0.050
-0.054

-0.234
0.105
0.160
0.077
0.357
0.264
0.097

0.164
-0.223
0.043
-0.073
0.019
-0.099
-0.414*

Subscales of PSDQ

*P<0.05
**p<0.01

Though males craving for smaller built is not an impossibility

altogether (Stanford and McCabe 2002), males BID usually
generates out of not being able to achieve a heavy and muscular
built, as the concept of drive for muscularity (McCreary and
Sasse 2000; Sandhu et al. 2013) explains this. Different forms of
media in todays Indian society project muscular built of men as
the ideal figure, but a fair amount of financial expenditure may be
associated with the means (gymming facility, seeing dieticians
etc.) to attain that projected ideal figure. This turns it into an
unattainable goal for majority of Indian people who belongs
from middle or lower socio-economic background, and dissatisfaction may emerge out of this inability to reach these ideals.
The concept of beauty for Indian women is undergoing
substantial change over the years. Todays Indian media usually project thin fashion models as the perfect figure (Rekha
and Maran 2012) which is expected to yield craving for that
ideal figure. Peers evaluation and suggestion creates dissatisfaction with present body among adolescent or young adult
girls and they hanker after an unachievable target (Shroff and
Thompson 2004). Yet the dissatisfaction is probably more for
the women of Western culture (Kayano et al. 2006), as in India
the socially accepted ideal of beauty is not thin to the extent it
is in Western culture (Gupta et al. 2001), though the trend is
slowly changing. The findings of the present study show that
BID is less frequent in females rather than males, yet a fair
percentage of female individuals had body image
dissatisfaction.
While self-ideal body size discrepancies are found to correlate highly with measures of body dissatisfaction
(Williamson et al. 1993), these discrepancies may also influence self concept. Historically, the relation between ideal and
actual perceptions of oneself and its relation to self-concept
originate from heuristic speculation of William James, who
noted that we have the paradox of a man shamed to death

because he is only the second pugilist or the second oarsman

in the world (1890, p.310), and concluded that objective
accomplishments are evaluated in relation to internal frames
of reference. This explains that relations between global esteem and self-perceptions in a specific domain (e.g., physical,
social, and academic) may be modified in relation to individual standards of excellence.
It was seen that among adolescents there was a relationship
between BID and the different components of physical self
concept. It has been observed that people who had significant
discrepancy between ideal and current body size, had a low
physical self concept (Alipoor et al. 2009), but there is skepticism about how far this statement can be generalized for
individuals of different ages and genders. All the components
of physical self concept have not been found to be equally
correlated with body image. The present study showed that
among adolescent participants, those who were dissatisfied
with body image had significantly different views about some
of the components of physical self concept than those who
were satisfied, but in case of young adults no such difference
was observed.
Health is usually thought of as general condition of body
and mind with reference to vigor (Yan 2008). The common
Indian belief is that an overweight or underweight person is
expected to lack vigor and be more prone to diseases. Those
with BID tend to consider themselves as unhealthy which was
reflected in the responses of the adolescent boys and girls of
the present research. Individuals who are strongly inclined to
the present day cultural ideal of beauty, where the definition of
fitness and health undergoing great change with thin women
and fatless muscular men get represented as being fit and
healthy (Body shapers for men 2012), are quite expected to
consider themselves unhealthy if they perceive their body to
deviate from this standard. Beside now-a-days in

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advertisements of skin or hair beautification products, these products are labeled as skin care or hair care products, which include skin and hair in the purview of health.
This may well give birth to BID in an individual who does
not have that perfect skin or hair. These factors might
have operated to persuade the adolescents that their body,
which is short of ideal, is unhealthy. Similar relation
between the concept of healthy figure and body image
dissatisfaction were not found among young adult participants. It may be stated that though BID was found among
young adults, with growing maturity they have gained a
stable concept of health that remain separated from the
concept of beauty.
Contradiction exists regarding the relationship between
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with body image and physical
activity and sports competence. High levels of body satisfaction have been found to be associated with the perception of
oneself being physically active (Davis and Cowles 1991), but
this has been found to be mostly true for males rather than
females (Alipoor et al. 2009). Results of the present study
showed that adolescent girls, who were dissatisfied with body
image, reported themselves to be physically less active.
However, in case of adolescent boys despite their dissatisfaction with their body they considered themselves as physically
active, but less competent in sports. They also did not have
significant negative view about their strength and body flexibility. So it can be assumed that their schema of being
physically active is not constituted of sports competence only.
In India while boys are mostly inspired to participate in
outdoor games, girls are traditionally not encouraged to indulge in sports. They are expected to learn virtues of a good
homemaker since their childhood (Luthra 2009). But this
encouragement and peer and family pressure for males to be
fit to excel in sports is more common in adolescence than later
phases of life. Interestingly more than 60 % of adolescent boys
revealed that they play football, cricket or participate in some
other form of outdoor sport. This socialization process while
on the one hand might have propagated indifference about
sports in the adolescent girls and resultant lack of knowledge
about their abilities to participate and perform in sports; consequently they perceive themselves as incompetent in sports,
lacking physical strength, endurance and flexibility, on the
other it form an evaluation of adolescent boys, who are
dissatisfied with their body, as themselves being incompetent
in sports.
Body image satisfaction appeared to be related to selfesteem among female participants of both age groups.
Dissatisfaction with ones appearance and overall body image
has been found to be significantly related to low self-esteem in
young adult females (Lowery et al. 2005) and adolescent girls
(Seepersad 2012) by researchers. Self-esteem also has been
found to have an effect on how females view their bodies
compared to other female bodies (Jones and Buckingham

2005). Present findings show that adolescent girls, who had

dissatisfaction over their body image, differed significantly
regarding their self-esteem, from those who were satisfied,
just as the two measures were found to be significantly correlated among young adult women. Though there have been
studies which report significant correlation of body image and
self-esteem among males, but not for females (Davis and
Cowles 1991). This study reveals that BID was not seen to
cause significant lowering of self-esteem for males of both age
groups. Kilbourne (2002) suggested that women are conditioned to view their bodies as objects. Through the mass
media, they discover that their bodies are in need of alteration
to confirm to the ideal (Batra 2007). Women are taught to
internalize an observers perspective of their own bodies.
Thus, an inconsistency with the ideal figure usually lowers
their self-esteem. This is more expected in Indian culture,
where females conventionally are appraised for being symbol
of beauty, they spend more time indoor and seem to be more
influenced by media presentations than males, who spend
long time outside home in games or in other peer group
activities. Consequently while females evaluation of them
becomes more focused on their physical beauty and body
grooming, that is not so for males. Therefore, in spite of the
fact that male participants were found to be more dissatisfied
with their body than their female counterparts, this dissatisfaction seemed to have a significant relationship with selfesteem in females only. India with its colossal population is
considered to be fast expanding market for multinational
brands, consequently leading to regular presentation of an
unattainable ideal body over media. The resultant body
dissatisfaction in women is of concern especially considering
the effort for womens empowerment which is still in its
infancy. The present study is expected to develop an understanding into the interplay of subjects claim on her body
and the body that has become a contesting space for the
market forces.

Conclusion
The findings of the present study revealed that for the majority
of the participants body image is a matter of dissatisfaction,
but it is more frequent among males than females. While most
participants wished to be thinner, few expected to be heavier
than their ideal figure. Though for most male participants
drive for muscularity seemed to cause expectations of a
heavier figure, few of them wished to have a smaller figure
than their current figure as well. It was also seen that individuals who were satisfied with their body image differed significantly from their counterparts, regarding their views about
some of the components of physical self concept. This study is
an attempt to explore whether dissatisfaction with ones body
image yield alteration in the concept of objective physical self.

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Psychol Stud

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