Kids get body image perceptions as early as age 7: study

By Stephen Beech

Children’s perception of what is a "normal" body shape development from seven years of age, according to new research.

Their opinions are affected by who they see around them, say scientists.

And body "ideals" continue to be influenced by visual exposure to different body weights into adulthood, according to the study.

Researchers say their findings show that people’s perceptions of body weight are "flexible" and "adult-like" from the age of seven upwards, and have implications for our understanding of body size and the perceptions, and possible misperceptions, of weight in health and well-being.

Study lead author Durham University Professor Dr. Lynda Boothroyd conducted the first-of-its-kind study to examine the flexibility of body weight perceptions in children and young adults.

The research found that kids as young as seven adjust how heavy or light they rate other people’s bodies after looking at a series of pictures of low or high weight bodies.

The study uncovered a "significant" shift in weight perceptions after exposure to images depicting various body weights.

The results, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, showed that the manner in which our brains represent what constitutes “heavy” or “light” develops at a very young age.

The research, involving more than 200 people aged seven through to adulthood, also indicated that media influences known to shape adult body perceptions can almost certainly impact children to the same degree, starting from early childhood and continuing to evolve into adulthood.

Dr. Boothroyd said: “It has been clear for many years that we need to be wary about visual media which present only a narrow range of bodies, because this affects adults’ body perceptions.

“Now we know that’s true for children, too.

"Even very neutral images can adjust their ideas about what is heavy or thin if they see enough of the same kind of body.”

Dr. Boothroyd’s team has previously shown that adults’ ideas about what is an "attractive" body weight are affected by visual experience.

Another previous study showed that white Western women have lower body appreciation and experience greater pressure to be thin compared to Nigerian and Chinese women.

The Durham team is now investigating how best to address body image concerns in young adults around the world in a $2 million research project.

The researchers are also developing new play-based techniques to investigate children’s understandings of body weight and body ideals from a younger age.

Dr. Boothroyd added: “Researchers often assume that children’s body perceptions and their ideas about body image work the same way as adults.

"We’ve shown that that’s true, down to seven years, for basic perceptual impacts on body weight perception.

"But there’s more to explore in how that converts into their own body image and their own feelings about weight.”