Effects of age, sex, and physical attractiveness on child-peer relations, academic performance, and elementary school adjustment.

Abstract

Effects of age, sex, and physical attractivenss for fourth- (n =56, 61% male) and sixth-grade (« =48, 50% male) children's (94% white) actual and perceived social, personal, and academic development were assessed. Subjects physical attractiveness was rated by 97 adults who viewed standardly posed photographs of them. Teachers rated subjects for academic ability and adjustment. Actual academic performance was indexed by grade point averages. Actual adjustment was measured through subsections of the California Test of Personality. Positive and negative peer relations scores were derived from peer nominations. Results were that physical attractiveness was positively related to positive peer relations, teachers' appraisals of academic ability and adjustment, and was negatively related to negative peer relations. Evidence was found for relations among physical attractiveness, grade point average, and actual adjustment. No sex or grade effects obtained. Organismic developmental notions, specifying how a child's physical attributes provide a basis of his own development, were discussed.