Salience of weight-related worries in adolescent males and females

Abstract

The present study of high school sophmores assessed the prominence of weight concerns relative to other worries typical of adolescents. Subjects were 453 females and 355 males from a parochial school who indicated how much they worried about each of 15 items. Girls reported worrying most about looks, figure, weight, and popularity with and relationships with the opposite sex. Boys worried most about money, looks, and popularity and relationships with the opposite sex. Girls reported significantly greater worry than boys on nine of 15 items and scored significantly higher than boys on trait anxiety. Obese boys and girls reported worrying significantly more about weight and figure (physique) than did their non-obese peers, but being overweight was otherwise unrelated to trait anxiety or worry about other issues. The findings indicate that weight and figure are of primary concern to adolescent girls relative to other issues. Boys clearly were not weight-preoccupied but did share several of the principal worries reported by girls.