Naturalistic Observation: Social Appearance Anxiety among High School Students in China

Abstract

The purposes of this study are to measure the scale of social appearance anxiety in the RDFZ Xishan AP Program and find the characters of susceptible students. We counted the number of people who looked into the mirror inside the school building elevator and took notes on their characters. The prediction was that social appearance anxiety would be substantial in the given population, and females would take up a more significant percentage of susceptible students. The hypotheses proved valid: an average of 18.6% of participants looked in the mirror, and 75% were female. In addition, the following data analysis results illustrate characters of students susceptible to appearance anxiety: S2 (junior year) students took up the most significant proportion of participants who looked in the mirror, and the most common colors of clothing were black and white. Based on these results, we suggest that the school should focus on the social appearance anxiety among susceptible students and supports their mental development.