Abstract
Body image dissatisfaction (BID) is a negative evaluation of personal physical characteristics, including dissatisfaction with body shape, gender, sexual organs, appearance and so forth, and it plays an important role in growth and development. The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is recognized as a putative indicator of intra-uterine testosterone to estrogen ratio exposure, and it has been observed that higher levels of fetal testosterone exposure are associated with a lower 2D:4D. The present paper contributes to a better understanding of the biological underpinnings of BID by analyzing BID and the digit ratio (2D:4D). We found that the 2D:4D was positively related to appearance dissatisfaction in boys with first spermatorrhea, which means that low prenatal androgen exposure may increase boys’ dissatisfaction with their appearance. In girls with breast development being lower than Tanner stage II, their 2D:4D was negatively related to their body shape dissatisfaction, which means that high prenatal androgen exposure may increase girls’ dissatisfaction with their body shape. These results suggest that the prenatal androgen exposure level might play an important role in the body image dissatisfaction of the offspring.
Highlights
Body image dissatisfaction (BID) is a negative evaluation of personal physical characteristics, including dissatisfaction with body shape, gender, sexual organs, appearance and so forth, and it plays an important role in growth and development
The most common body image problem among children and adolescents is body image dissatisfaction (BID), which is a negative evaluation of personal physical c haracteristics[4], including dissatisfaction with body shape, gender, sexual organs, and appearance
There were no significant differences in the body shape dissatisfaction scores and appearance dissatisfaction scores (P > 0.05)
Summary
Body image dissatisfaction (BID) is a negative evaluation of personal physical characteristics, including dissatisfaction with body shape, gender, sexual organs, appearance and so forth, and it plays an important role in growth and development. In girls with breast development being lower than Tanner stage II, their 2D:4D was negatively related to their body shape dissatisfaction, which means that high prenatal androgen exposure may increase girls’ dissatisfaction with their body shape. These results suggest that the prenatal androgen exposure level might play an important role in the body image dissatisfaction of the offspring. The results from Culbert et al.[32] indicated that sex hormone levels in the blood circulation were related to BID and presented a phased characteristic
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