Abstract
Although social support has been linked to body satisfaction, there has been little research on the effect of differential sources of support on the trajectory of appearance esteem over time. To address this gap, this study explored changes in adolescents’ appearance esteem to perceived social support over one year. Data were collected from 339 Canadian adolescents (54.57% females) in Grade 7 (Mage = 12.05) and Grade 10 (Mage = 15.14). Multilevel growth modeling revealed that perceived social support from fathers was not associated with appearance esteem, whereas mothers’ support had the strongest effect on appearance esteem, consistently over time. Friends’ support was also related to an increase in the appearance esteem trajectory, but only for older students. Overall, this prospective study provides a better understanding of the unique contribution of three different sources of social support during adolescence for preventing negative appearance esteem, beyond the effects of other related variables.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the study participants, in addition to the authorities of the two school boards, as well as the directors, teachers, and professionals of each school, for their assistance in data collection and administration of the project. They are also grateful to all of the adolescents who agreed to participate in this research. Thanks also to Benjamin Knight, M.Sc., from Edanz Group (www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript, in addition to Joanne Zinkewich, for help with translation issues.
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This work was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada SSHRCC [Grant number 890-2015-1021], and a fellowship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec—Société et culture (FRQSC).
Data Sharing and DeclarationThe datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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A.G. participated in the design of the study, performed the descriptive analyses and drafted the manuscript; M.B. is the principal investigator, and coordinator of the study, participated in interpretation of the data, and help to draft the manuscript; J.A. participated in the design of the study, performed the statistical analyses, participated in interpretation of the data and help to draft the manuscript; M.J. participated in interpretation of the data, and helped to draft the manuscript; M.C. participated in the design of the study, helped draft and revise the manuscript; J.D. participated in the design of the study, participated in interpretation of the data, and help to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Gagné, AS., Blackburn, MÈ., Auclair, J. et al. Appearance Esteem Trajectory According to Three Different Sources of Support Among Adolescents Over a School Year. J Youth Adolescence 49, 2190–2202 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01324-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01324-9