The main purposes of the present study were to compare selected body
shape factors of adolescents belonging to different physical self
-
concept subgroups, and to identify those
s
omatic factors that have the strongest influence on the physical self
-
concept in adolescents.
A randomly selected subsample of the 2nd Hungarian National Growth Study formed the sample of the
analysis. Besides the anthropometric investigations the Tenness
ee self
-
concept scale (that is a self
-
report
measure and assesses the global self
-
concept and its components) was administered to altogether 3409
adolescents (1701 boys and 1708 girls,
aged between 11 and 18 years). M
ultinomial logistic regression was
used
to reveal the relationship between the absolute body dimensions, relative body dimensions, nutritional
status, body mass components, body shape and physical self
-
concept in the studied age interval.
The better the body image, the smaller the fatness was f
ound in both sexes. In adolescents having negative
self
-
concept endomorphy was significantly larger than in their age
-
peers with good self
-
concept. The
presumed fact that obesity is not popular in adolescent
s
has been confirmed by this study. However, the
underweight nutritional status was
found to be
attractive in the girls.
These results informed us about the considerable influence of the pubertal not normal nutritional status on
the discrepancy between the ideal and actual self
-
concepts. The strong infl
uence of the other components of
self
-
concept on the physical self
-
concept was evidenced as well.
Keywords:
2nd
Hungarian National Growth Study
; Adolescents; Obesity; Body composition;
Body shape; Self
-
concept; Body image
