Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Body Image, Assimilation, and Weight of Immigrant Adolescents in the United States: A Person-Centered Analysis

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Adolescence is a critical developmental period as youth explore their body image and work to establish an identity. The stress of identity and body image development can be exacerbated by acculturative stress faced by immigrant adolescents. Using a person-centered analysis, we investigated immigrant adolescents’ (n = 57) profiles based on assimilation to the United States (US), weight, and body image dissatisfaction. Analyses included an exploratory two-step clustering technique using maximum likelihood estimation procedures to assign class membership. Follow-up analyses then examined latent class membership by adolescent age, gender, culture of origin, and immigration generation. Results indicated several meaningful latent groups of adolescents based on their BID, acculturation, and BMI. These profiles included one in which adolescents who were underweight and more assimilated to US culture also reported more satisfaction with their body image. A second profile emerged of adolescents who were normal weight or overweight and less assimilated, who also reported higher levels of body image dissatisfaction, with a desire to be thinner. The third cluster profile included adolescents who were of normal weight, but were higher on assimilation and were among the most dissatisfied with their body image. Our findings suggest that immigrant adolescents at all levels of acculturation are internalizing the thin body ideal prominent in the US, with a variety of implications for their sense of body image and BMI. Implications for mental and physical health care for immigrant adolescents are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Migration Policy Institute: tabulation of data from U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 American Community Survey (ACS) and 1990 Decennial Census. 2015. http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states#Children.

  2. Sujoldzić A, De Lucia A. A cross-cultural study of adolescents–BMI, body image and psychological well-being. Coll Antropol. 2007;31(1):123–30.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. García Coll C, Marks AK. The immigrant paradox in children and adolescents. Is becoming American a developmental risk?. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 2012.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Derose KP, Escarce JJ, Lurie N. Immigrants and health care: sources of vulnerability. Health Affairs (Project Hope). 2007;26(5):1258–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kapke TL, Gerdes AC, Lawton KE. Global self-worth in Latino youth: the role of acculturation and acculturation risk factors. Child Youth Care Forum. 2017;46(3):307–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rosenblum GD, Lewis M. The relations among body image, physical attractiveness, and body mass in adolescence. Child Dev. 1999;70(1):50–64.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Cash TF, Szymanski ML. The development and validation of the body-image ideals questionnaire. J Pers Assess. 1995;64(3):466–77.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Bearman S, Presnell K, Martinez E, Stice E. The skinny on body dissatisfaction: a longitudinal study of adolescent girls and boys. J Youth Adolesc. 2006;35(2):229–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Kimber M, Couturier J, Georgiades K, Wahoush O, Jack S. Ethnic minority status and body image dissatisfaction: a scoping review of the child and adolescent literature. J Immigr Minor Health. 2015;17(5):1567–79.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Stice E, Shaw HE. Role of body dissatisfaction in the onset and maintenance of eating pathology: a synthesis of research findings. J Psychosom Res. 2002;53(5):985–93.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Bronfenbrenner U, Ceci SJ. Nature-nurture reconceptualized in developmental perspectives: a bioecological model. Psychol Rev. 1994;101:568–86.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Unger JB, Gallaher P, Shakib S, Ritt-Olson A, Palmer PH, Johnson CA. The AHIMSA acculturation scale: a new measure of acculturation for adolescents in a multicultural society. J Early Adolesc. 2002;22(3):225–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Sussman NM, Troung N, Lim J. Who experiences “America the beautiful?” ethnicity moderating the effect of acculturation on body image and risk for eating disorders among immigrant women. Int J Intercult Relat. 2007;31(1):29–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Kimber M, Georgiades K, Couturier J, Jack SM, Wahoush O. Adolescent body image distortion: a consideration of immigrant generational status, immigrant concentration, sex and body dissatisfaction. J Youth Adolesc. 2015;44(11):2154–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Magtoto J, Cox D, Saewyc E. Body satisfaction and eating disorder behaviors among immigrant adolescents in North America. Int J School Educ Psychol. 2013;1(1):13–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Ayala GX, Mickens L, Galindo P, Elder JP. Acculturation and body image perception among Latino youth. Ethn Health. 2007;12(1):21–41.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Gonzales NA, Knight GP, Morgan-Lopez AA, Saenz D, Sirolli A. Acculturation and the mental health of Latino youths: an integration and critique of the literature. In: Contreras JM, Kerns KA, Neal-Barnett AM, editors. Latino children and families in the United States: current research and future directions. Westport, CT: Prager; 2002. p. 45–74.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Schooler D. Real women have curves. A longitudinal investigation of TV and the body image development of Latina adolescents. J Adolesc Res. 2008;23(2):132–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Muthén B, Muthén LK. Integrating person-centered and variable-centered analyses: growth mixture modeling with latent trajectory classes. Alcoholism. 2000;24(6):882–91.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. SPSS Inc (2001) The SPSS two step cluster component: a scalable component enabling more efficient customer segmentation (Technical Report). Chicago, IL.

  21. Sawyer SM, Azzopardi PS, Wickremarathne D, Patton GC. The age of adolescence. Lancet Child Adolesc Health. 2018;2(3):223–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Peña JB, Wyman PA, Brown CH, Matthieu MM, Olivares TE, Hartel D, Zayas LH. Immigration generation status and its association with suicide attempts, substance use, and depressive symptoms among Latino adolescents in the USA. Prev Sci. 2008;9(4):299–310.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Barlow SE. Expert committee recommendations regarding the prevention, assessment, and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity: Summary report. Pediatrics. 2007;120:164–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Pulvers KM, Lee RE, Kaur H, Mayo MS, Fitzgibbon ML, Jeffries SK, Ahluawalia JS. Development of a culturally relevant body image instrument among urban African Americans. Obes Res. 2004;12:1641–51.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Howard MC, Hoffman ME. Variable-centered, person-centered, and person-specific approaches: where theory meets the method. Organ Res Methods. 2018;21(4):846–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Meyer JP, Morin AJS. A person-centered approach to commitment research: theory, research, and methodology. J Organ Behav. 2016;37:584–612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Theodoridis S, Koutroumbas K. Pattern recognition. San Diego: Academic; 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  28. van Geel M, Vedder P, Tanilon J. Are overweight and obese youths more often bullied by their peers? A meta-analysis on the relation between weight status and bullying. Int J Obes. 2014;38(10):1263–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Rogers-Sirin L, Ryce P, Sirin SR. Acculturation, acculturative stress, and cultural mismatch and their influences on immigrant children and adolescents’ well-being. In: Dimitrova R, Bender M, van de Vijver FJ, editors. Global perspectives on well-being in immigrant families, advances in immigrant family research. New York: Springer; 2014. p. 11–30.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  30. Perez M, Voelz ZR, Pettit JW, Joiner TJ. The role of acculturative stress and body dissatisfaction in predicting bulimic symptomatology across ethnic groups. Int J Eat Disord. 2002;31(4):442–54.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Suffolk University, 73 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, 02108, USA

    Mary Beth McCullough, Kerrie A. Pieloch & Amy K. Marks

Authors
  1. Mary Beth McCullough
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kerrie A. Pieloch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Amy K. Marks
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary Beth McCullough.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

McCullough, M.B., Pieloch, K.A. & Marks, A.K. Body Image, Assimilation, and Weight of Immigrant Adolescents in the United States: A Person-Centered Analysis. J Immigrant Minority Health 22, 249–254 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-019-00892-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-019-00892-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation