Gender Conceptualizations in Female High School Seniors: Relationships with Global Self-Worth and Multiple Measures of Body Image

This study was conducted to determine if gender-role conceptualizations in adolescent girls were related to their global self-worth
and several dimensions of their body image. Self-report surveys were administered to 335 predominantly Caucasian Grade 12
girls from religiously-based high schools in the midwestern part of the United States. It was hypothesized that adolescent
females’ gender-typing of themselves as well as their gender-related attitudes towards others would be significantly, and
possibly divergently, related to their perceptions of themselves and their physical bodies. Obtained data were analyzed using
multivariate canonical correlation procedures. The results of these analyses revealed support for the predicted overall relationship
between gender conceptualizations and self-perceptions, but also indicated some differences in the way in which the two dimensions
of gender-role conceptualizations (personal and attitudes towards others) were associated with adolescents’ perceptions of
themselves. Specifically, girls exhibiting more egalitarian gender-related attitudes towards others scored higher on global
self-worth and lower in body appearance orientation. In addition, higher self-endorsement on the masculine subscales was linked
with higher global self-worth, lower social physique anxiety, and higher use of competence to evaluate the physical body.
In contrast, high self-endorsement on the feminine subscales exhibited mixed links to the set of self-perceptual variables.