The timely Jennifer Hawkins’ untouched photo debate has upped the ante on this subject of ‘Body Image’. While public reaction to the photos was mixed, Hawkins’ motive was to highlight the problem of negative body image attitudes by showing that no-one is perfect.

Negative body image contributes to serious health consequences, including mental health problems such as depression and low self-esteem, and eating disorders.

So how do body image and body image attitudes develop before school age? Almost nothing is known about this process in very young children aged 5 and under.

Professor Susan Paxton was awarded an Australian Rotary Health grant to study very young children’s perception of body image and their attitude to different body shapes.

Her pilot study will involve 216 boys and girls aged 3, 4 and 5. 

It is known that peer pressure to be thin (girls) or muscular (boys), appearance-focussed television programs and societal messages about overweight adults impact significantly on children.

Professor Paxton and her team will ‘interview’ the children using play-style interaction with dolls, colourful felt figures and stories that researchers can use to assess the children’s own body image, their body image attitudes and their dieting awareness.

Parents will be very much involved in the study. Their Body Mass Index, body dissatisfaction, body image attitudes and self esteem will be assessed.

As well, mothers will provide information on a number of observations including their child’s exposure to ‘appearance focussed’ media and their child’s peer experiences, including peer teasing about how they look.

“This significant study provides the foundation for a larger study where we will follow up participants over a three year period” Prof Paxton said. “Our research has important implications for prevention research in early childhood settings such as pre-schools”. 

Prof Paxton can also see the long term benefits of her research. “If programs can be targeted towards children when they are forming body image attitudes, we may be able to prevent them from developing mental health issues as they get older” she said.

The La Trobe University study is one of ten pilot research studies funded by Australian Rotary Health’s 2010 initiative “Mental Health of Young Australians (Birth to 17 Years)”. This initiative is the first of its kind in Australia.

Australian Rotary Health Chairman, Noel Trevaskis, said “the $300,000 spent on funding the pilot research projects is a valuable investment in the mental health of Australian children”.

Contact:       
Gerardine Grace - Media & Communications        
Phone:               02 8837 1900        
Email:  gerardinegrace@australianrotaryhealth.org.au