Very young children’s body image: Bodies and minds under construction

In recent years research has recognised that notions of body image, body image ideals and body dissatisfaction develop much earlier than was once thought. Forty-seven children (25 male; 22 female) aged between 5 and 6 years were interviewed on three occasions over 12 months regarding their perceptions of body image. The interviews revealed strong negative perceptions of fatness. However, being overweight or even obese was not always correlated with being unhealthy. Conversely, the desire towards cultural ideals of thinness, while apparent, was not as clear.