Junior High School Students And College Students’ Body Image Features And Its Relationship With Self-esteemand General Life Satisfaction

Body image pressure has become a more common problem. Affected by peers, family and mass media, more and more young people internalized the concepts about body attraction promoted by media. However, such internalization is dangerous for physical and psychological health of adolescence. Implicit body image refers to the concept of their body that individual gain from implicit learning. Explicit body image refers to individual’s own claimed opinion on their own body. Does implicit body image exist? If so, what is the relationship between implicit and explicit body image and how do they affect self-esteem and perceived happiness?To explore the questions above, Study I adopts a self-organized implicit body image IAT test on college and junior high school students. The study finds that both student groups have apparent implicit body image and body preferences, which are in line with the findings of previous studies. The study also discusses the gender and age differences of implicit body image. The result shows that the implicit body image of college students is significantly below that of junior high school students and female’s perception of implicit body image is significantly stronger than male’s.The study object of Study II is the same as Study I. Surveys are used to measure explicit body image. In Study II, the relations between explicit body image and implicit body image are explored and age and gender differences of explicit body image are explored. It is found that implicit body image and explicit body image are two different concepts. The explicit body image of college students is significantly lower than that of junior high school students and women’s explicit body image is lower than male’s. This reflects that women are more conscious of their body and have higher standards on their body. The gap between ideal body and actual body causes dissatisfaction towards their bodies.Study III discusses the relationship between body image, self-esteem and general life satisfaction among college and junior high school students. A significance relevance is found between body image, self-esteem and general life satisfaction. Specific dimensions of explicit body image can indicate levels of self-esteem and general life satisfaction.