Body image and peer relationships: Unique associations of adolescents' social status and competence with peer- and self-reported appearance victimization

Abstract

Adolescents were asked to nominate peers who experience appearance-related victimization or engage in appearance-related aggression, in order to examine the peer social status and competency correlates of receiving more nominations. Moreover, the correlates of peer-report vs. self-report appearance-related victimization were considered. Participants were 371 young Australian adolescents (55% girls, Mage = 12.0 years) who completed surveys. Results showed that victimized adolescents were rated as less liked, prosocial, popular and good-looking, and perceived themselves to be less attractive, less competent at sport and more teased by peers about appearance. Aggressive adolescents were rated as more popular and better looking, but also less prosocial. Aggressive adolescents also perceived themselves to be less academically but more romantically competent, and reported more appearance anxiety symptoms. Findings from peer-report measures generally support previous research findings using self-report measures, but the significant correlates did appear to differ between peer- and self-report of appearance victimization.