TY - JOUR
T1 - Girls feeling good at school
T2 - School gender environment, internalization and awareness of socio-cultural attitudes associations with self-esteem in adolescent girls
AU - Cribb, Victoria L.
AU - Haase, Anne M.
N1 - Date of Acceptance: 23/10/2015
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - As society continues to advocate an unrealistically thin body shape, awareness and internalization of appearance and its consequent impact upon self-esteem has become increasingly of concern, particularly in adolescent girls. School gender environment may influence these factors, but remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to assess differences between two different school environments in appearance attitudes, social influences and associations with self-esteem. Two hundred and twelve girls (M = 13.8 years) attending either a single-sex or co-educational school completed measures on socio-cultural attitudes towards appearance, social support and self-esteem. Though marginal differences between school environments were found, significantly higher internalization was reported among girls at the co-educational school. School environment moderated relations between internalization and self-esteem such that girls in co-educational environments had poorer self-esteem stemming from greater internalization. Thus, in a single-sex school environment, protective factors may attenuate negative associations between socio-cultural attitudes towards appearance and self-esteem in adolescent girls.
AB - As society continues to advocate an unrealistically thin body shape, awareness and internalization of appearance and its consequent impact upon self-esteem has become increasingly of concern, particularly in adolescent girls. School gender environment may influence these factors, but remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to assess differences between two different school environments in appearance attitudes, social influences and associations with self-esteem. Two hundred and twelve girls (M = 13.8 years) attending either a single-sex or co-educational school completed measures on socio-cultural attitudes towards appearance, social support and self-esteem. Though marginal differences between school environments were found, significantly higher internalization was reported among girls at the co-educational school. School environment moderated relations between internalization and self-esteem such that girls in co-educational environments had poorer self-esteem stemming from greater internalization. Thus, in a single-sex school environment, protective factors may attenuate negative associations between socio-cultural attitudes towards appearance and self-esteem in adolescent girls.
KW - School environment
KW - Self-esteem
KW - Adolescent girls
KW - Internalization of appearance ideals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949953513&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.10.019
DO - 10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.10.019
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
C2 - 26684660
AN - SCOPUS:84949953513
SN - 0140-1971
VL - 46
SP - 107
EP - 114
JO - Journal of Adolescence
JF - Journal of Adolescence
ER -