Adolescents’ (UN) satisfaction with their Body Image: a Lithuanian Case Study

The paper focused on the evaluation of Lithuanian adolescents' satisfaction with their body image through self-evaluation of parts of their bodies. Due to major physical, social, emotional, and moral ongoing changes, adolescents’ physical appearance becomes one of the top concerns. Dissatisfaction with physical appearance among girls is often reflected in a desire to be thinner, while among boys – a desire to be taller, become more muscular and have a nice body shape. However, there is a gap in research analyzing dissatisfaction with the body parts, among adolescents. A 40-question authorial questionnaire was developed to measure satisfaction with one's body parts and validated in a representative sample. The sample consisted of 1,347 Grade 8 pupils (boys n=674, and girls n=670). As established, satisfaction with one's body parts was related to gender: the satisfaction of boys and girls with the image of their bodies differed (p=0,000). Adolescents were more unsatisfied with the parts of their body that depended on an individual's phenotype (in the lower area - with buttocks, hips, legs, thighs, and calves; in the middle area - with abdomen and waist; in the upper area - with shoulders, arms and chest), and they were more satisfied with individual morpohological characteristics of the body (facial skin, feet, cheeks, ears, hair, chin, lips, eyes, neck), depending on an individual's genotype. The boys' satisfaction with their body parts in early adolescence was higher than that of the girls.