BODY IMAGE RESEARCH SUMMARY

Body Image and Ageing

Dr. Marika Tiggemann

School of Psychology, Flinders University of South Australia

Although body image is a complex construct which includes all of how we see, think
and feel about our whole bodies, in contemporary society the major focus has become
weight. This is not surprising when the current beauty ideals for women inordinately
emphasise thinness, and “thinness equals attractiveness” (1). However, most of the
research on body image has been conducted with high school or university students
and consequently samples have been restricted to a narrow age range in the teens and
early 20s. This paper presents a brief overview of the key findings from research,
which has included older adults.

Large-scale surveys
Several large-scale surveys of body image have now included older women up to the
age of 75. These find substantial levels of body dissatisfaction, with more than 70%
of women aged 30-74 wishing to be thinner even though most were of normal weight;
(2) and nearly one half of women aged 18 to 70 reporting preoccupation with being
or becoming overweight and wholesale displeasure with their weight, lower torso
(hips, buttocks, thighs and legs) and mid-torso (waist and stomach) (3). In the largest
survey to date, of the readership of the magazine Psychology Today (over 3000
women and 500 men aged 13-90 years), Garner and Kearney-Cooke (4) report very
high levels of body dissatisfaction for women. Whereas the overwhelming majority
of dissatisfied women want to lose weight, men who are dissatisfied appear to be
more evenly divided between those who wish to lose, and those who wish to gain,
weight.

Age and gender differences in body image

There is good reason to expect body image to become poorer as people age, as every
year is likely to take us further away from the thin and youthful beauty ideal. People
typically put on weight through the lifespan, about 10 lbs (4.6 kgs) per decade of life
(5). They also change shape, lose skin elasticity and get wrinkles, and their hair turns
grey or thins. This is likely to be particularly problematic for women, whose
biological developmental milestones - puberty, pregnancy, menopause - all have the
potential to increase body fat deposition. Attractiveness is also seen as more central
to woman’s identity and not surprisingly, women are more concerned about the
effects of ageing on their appearance (6). Some authors have suggested there is a
“double standard of ageing”, whereby older women are judged much more negatively
than older men.

A number of studies have compared young and older adults on figure rating scales, in
which people are asked to choose their current and ideal figures from a series of
silhouette drawings ranging from very thin to very fat (7, 8, 9, 10). These have

Body Image & Health Inc. (1999) Research Summaries 1

uniformly found similar high levels of body dissatisfaction (current substantially
larger than ideal) for women across various age groups. Sometimes older men also
display body dissatisfaction (7, 9) and sometimes not (8, 10). In these studies, young
men never do.

In the main these findings have been replicated with other measures. For women,
desire to be thinner does not change with age (5, 2), nor does importance of weight
control (12), overweight preoccupation (3), global body image (13), satisfaction with
appearance (4, 14,15) or satisfaction with body parts (16, 3). However, Pliner et al.
(12), and Thompson et al. (15), found that the importance of physical appearance, as
opposed to satisfaction, did diminish with age.

Some of these studies show no difference in body image between adult men and
women (14). On the other hand, Paxton and Phythian (13) showed healthier body
image for men than women across all ages from 40-79 years, but in older men there
was a decrease in perceived attractiveness and fitness and an increase in the
importance of health. Likewise, Garner and Kearney-Cooke (4) report that men are
much less dissatisfied with their appearance across the board than women, but are
most dissatisfied in the 30-39 and 50-59 year old age range.

Two studies have specifically investigated elderly samples. Hetherington and Burnett
(5) found elderly women (60-78 years) to report significantly greater satisfaction with
their bodies than young women (18-31 years), and Janelli (1993) found old women
(mean age = 76) and old men (mean age = 72) not to differ on satisfaction with body
parts, although all in fact indicated slight satisfaction. It seems likely that people
adjust their standards of attractiveness as they age so as to compare themselves with
their peers. The fact that the five body parts elderly women were most dissatisfied
with were their eyes, hands, fingers, body weight and legs, may suggest a shift to
focusing on functional aspects of their bodies.

Ageing and dieting

One response to the pervasive wish to be thinner is to diet to lose weight. Two
studies have investigated dieting in older age groups. Allaz et al. (2) found that
30.5% of their 65-74 year-old age group of women had dieted within the last 5 years,
of whom 62% were at normal weight. Hetherington and Burnett (5) report similar
levels of dietary restraint and eating attitudes across their age groups. About 30% of
their elderly women (60-78 years) were currently on a diet to lose weight. In view of
their vulnerability to nutritional deficiencies, dieting may represent a serious health
risk for elderly women.

Age effects on the relationship between body image and self-esteem

Given the importance of attractiveness to women’s self-concept, one would expect a
woman’s satisfaction with her body to impact on her overall satisfaction with herself,
that is on her self-esteem, to a much greater extent than for men. However, weight
may become a less important source of esteem as women grow into adulthood, for
example as they gain occupational identity or experience motherhood.

The research indicates that body dissatisfaction is related to lower self-esteem for
adult women over about 30 years (17, 18) but perhaps not for younger women (8).

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Although the latter study found no significant relationship for young or mature men,
the studies of of Pliner, Chaiken and Flett (12), Wilcox (14) and Paxton and Phythian
(13) have all reported appearance to be related to self-esteem across their entire
samples, that is regardless of age or gender.

Specific aspects of the ageing process

Threats are imposed on body image throughout the life cycle (19). Older people are
more likely to endure medical problems or chronic illness, restrictions in social and
personal activities, and changes in status and relationships with families and friends,
in addition to physiological changes in weight, posture, skin and hair quality (20).
However, the specific aspects of the ageing process which impact on body image
have not been researched.

Similarly little has been done on the milestones in women’s lives. Garner and
Kearney-Cooke (4) report that pregnancy is increasingly seen as an encumbrance to
body image and some women are choosing not to have children for this reason.
Deeks (21) reports great dissatisfaction with the body post-menopausally, although 5
years later women liked and felt more comfortable with their bodies.

Other variables
Both Wilcox (14) and Paxton and Phythian (13) found that healthy individuals rated
their appearance more positively than less healthy individuals, regardless of their age
or gender.

Wilcox (14) also found that for women who did not exercise, age was associated with
lower body satisfaction, but for those who exercised, increasing age was associated
with greater body satisfaction. Thus, in addition to the physical benefits of exercise
for older women, exercise may also benefit older women’s body attitudes.

Conclusions
It needs to be borne in mind that all the studies reviewed look at age differences,
rather than age changes. To investigate age changes properly we need to trace the
same individuals over time in longitudinal studies.

Nevertheless, in the main and with very few exceptions, we can conclude that women
show considerable body dissatisfaction and weight concern whatever their age, at
least up until quite elderly. Given the variety of methods and age groups, body image
has been shown to be remarkably stable across the entire life span for women. This
lends further support to Rodin et al.’s (1985) conceptualisation of weight as a
“normative discontent” for women.

For men, the picture is less clear. There have been fewer studies with mixed results.
Although young men have much better body image than young women, the findings
from studies with older men suggest that they also experience body dissatisfaction as

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they age. Similarly, attractiveness seems to be related to self-esteem for mature men
and women alike.

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 References

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