Sexy-Clothing Behavior of High School Girls: Sexual Self-Congruity and Parental and Popular Girls’ Influences

Abstract

The present study focused on the sexy-clothing behavior of high school girls. Specifically, we examined whether high school girls wear sexy clothes to express their actual sexual self-concepts and achieve their ideal sexual self-concepts and whether parents and popular girls influence those behaviors. The results, obtained by applying structural equation modeling to analyze the data collected from 384 ninth-grade girls, imply that such girls wear sexy clothes to convey their actual sexual self-concepts and achieve their ideal sexual self-concepts. The girls’ perceptions of parents’ sexy-clothing approval and of popular girls’ sexy-clothing wearing behavior influence the high school girls’ sexy-clothing wearing behavior. Parents significantly influence high school girls’ tendencies to wear sexy clothes to express their actual sexual self-concepts. Popular girls’ sexy-clothing wearing behavior influences high school girls’ tendencies to wear sexy clothes to achieve their ideal sexual self-concepts. Implications of the findings are discussed.