Body image is both a state of mind and an experiential process. It is the single best way of summarizing our relationship to our body at any given moment. I have written extensively about the evolution of body image from birth to death in my Principles of Somatic Psychology and am now finishing an extended treatment in a new text entitled Body Image for Bodyworkers: Understanding Your Client’s Bodymind Relationship and have posted a blog-lecture on the body image development for women—The Journey of the Female Bodymind—and so I will only focus today on new research detailing “sensitive periods” in male and female body experience over the lifespan.
First, it must be remembered that the body image is one-half of the body schema/image system. The body schema is the body as it is experienced with all the different modes of sensory awareness. Body image is the emotional and cognitive response to that experience. It centers on judgments about different body parts, its shape, weight, and appearance. The net result is a ratio of positive vs. negative thoughts and feelings.
Now to the the most recent study regarding the evolution of body image over time. This study considered (a) body-related self-conscious emotions over time and (b) the associations between body-related emotions and physical activity over five years in 776 children of which 56 percent were girls and initially aged 12.6 years. Data were collected annually. It was found that girls reported higher body-related guilt, shame, envy, and embarrassment than boys while boys reported higher hubristic (egocentric) pride than girls. Body shame, guilt, envy, and embarrassment significantly increased for both girls and boys over the five-year period, Levels of authentic pride did not change for either group while hubristic pride increased for girls only. Body guilt, shame, and embarrassment were negatively related to physical activity while authentic and hubristic pride were positively associated with physical activity. These findings suggest that adolescents express increasingly negative body self-conscious emotions over time (Sabiston et al., 2022).
A second study conducted an impressive meta-analysis of 142 studies covering a total subject pool of 128,254 (Lacroix et al., 2023). That’s a significant sample and so this study warrants close inspection. It measured the level of change level change in body image, body satisfaction, body esteem, perceived attractiveness, body dissatisfaction, valuation, self-objectification, and body shame. Body image self-consciousness first emerges in children as young as six. Various studies state that body image concerns are prevalent in 40 to 50 percent of school children between six and 12. Adolescence is a significant period in which more than 70 percent of girls are unhappy with their body weight and/or shape. Boys are usually unhappy with their body size and muscularity although less so than girls who desire thinness. Dissatisfaction continues into adulthood with 11 to 72 percent of American women and eight to 61 percent of men being distressed.
Body image changes with age is a driving force in embodied consciousness. In general, it tends to become more positive as one gets older, but with some gender differences. Males tend to fluctuate more to the positive side. Females enter a negative period by age 16 and then slowly improve into early adulthood. The greatest changes in male and female body image occur between the ages of 10 and 14 and then stabilizes by 24. Body image distress begins mounting again between 38 to 54 with the onset of middle age. Body appearance distress is especially strong in women at this time and then are followed by men later. For men and women, the largest changes in body image occurred between ages 10 and 14, and mean-level body image appeared to stabilize by approximately age 24.
Closing Thoughts
There are several take-aways from these studies. First, the Lacroix research represents the most comprehensive meta-analysis of longitudinal studies on body image as of today (09-07-23). It gives us a complete as possible picture of normative body image development across the lifespan with special focus on the factors of age, gender, construct, birth cohort, attrition, and time lag. Meta-analytic studies have several virtues. They give greater statistical power and accuracy of analysis. They can in this case give a full longitudinal view of lifespan development. And, lastly, it reveals the complexities of the subject of body image and any conflicting findings. But, again, the real value is in analyzing a huge subject pool over the course of the lifetime. The Sabiston study is of particular interest because it sheds light on the body image changes beginning in childhood and how it is eventually colored by negative emotions. I reveals certain periods in the lifespan where body image is in a state of flux and is particularly sensitive to change. Further study along these lines may help somatic clinical psychotherapists more precisely target their interventions for maximum change and effectiveness. Manual therapists need to know about these periods to better understand, appreciate, and support their clients’ various struggles with body unhappiness. Finally, body image research over the last 40 years yields several now undeniable conclusions. Two of these are that most people suffer from normative discontent or general body unhappiness and the other is that there are gender differences in body image satisfaction. This latter reality is that men are generally more satisfied with their bodies—especially its functionality—than are women although this difference shrinks with age.
Paul Shane, Ph.D., LMT
Director, Academic Content
References
Lacroix, E., Smith, A., Husain, I., Orth, U., & von Ranson, K. (2023). Normative body image development: A longitudinal meta-analysis of mean-level change. Body Image 45, p. 238-264.
Sabiston, C., Doré, I., Lucibello, K., Pila, E., Brunet, J., Thibault, V., & Bélanger, M. (2022). Body image self-conscious emotions get worse throughout adolescence and relate to physical activity behavior in girls and boys. Social Science and Medicine 315, article 115543.
Shane, P. (2023). Principles of Somatic Psychology: An Evidence-Based, Transdisciplinary Approach for the Holistic Healthcare Professions. Brecksville, OH: Center for Bodymind Education.
Updated 10-15-23.