New research by our Psychology department has found that White Western women are less positive about their bodies and feel greater media pressure to be thin than Black Nigerian and Chinese women.
The study looked at how age and culture impacts on women’s positivity and pride about their bodies and the sociocultural pressures they experience.
It involved over 1,100 White Western, Black Nigerian and Chinese women aged 18-80.
The findings revealed that whilst body appreciation was relatively stable across all ages, sociocultural pressure was evident in all three groups.
White Western women felt significantly more pressure from the media to conform to thin or athletic body ideals across their lives. They also reported lower levels of body appreciation.
Black Nigerian women were the most positive about their bodies. They also reported far less media pressure regarding body image which decreased as they got older.
Meanwhile, Chinese women reported the highest ongoing family and peer pressure around body image but media-related pressure was less and decreased with age.
This study contradicts other work in the field which has suggested that women feel increasingly positive about their bodies as they get older.
Based on their findings, the research team believe that greater consideration should be given to all age groups when developing interventions to increase body appreciation.
Additionally, the team believe their study provides a starting point for interventions to be tailored to take account of cultural differences which may boost effectiveness. For example, developing greater media literacy for White Western women who reported the highest pressure in this area.
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