Body Image: Peer Influences
D Carlson Jones, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Glossary
appearance conversations Discussions with friends
that focus on appearance as an important attribute,
support the construction of appearance norms and ideals,
and evaluate the self relative to others on physical
attributes.
appearance teasing Critical communication between a
teaser and a target that focuses on appearance. This kind of
teasing is often hurtful, irrespective of the intention of the
teaser.
body image satisfaction The degree to which adolescents
evaluate positively their physical features, shape, and
weight.
body mass index (BMI) A measure of body fat based on
dividing weight (in kg) by the height (in m) squared.
Introduction
Relationships with peers represent an important interperso­
nal context for the development of body image. From
childhood through young adulthood, nearly all individuals
want to be accepted by peers and desire to form close
relationships with peers. These fundamental human needs
are the basis for striving to establish and maintain friends,
gain acceptance among peers in school and in other activ­
ities, and find romantic partners. In addition, children,
adolescents, and young adults spend a considerable amount
of time in the company of peers and thus have extended
opportunities to interact and influence each other. Peers
then represent potent reference groups that meet basic
social needs and serve as models, reinforcing agents,
instructors, interpreters, and collaborators.
The primary goal of this article is to examine the literature
that connects experiences in different peer relationships to
body image satisfaction for children, adolescents, and emer­
ging adults. Friendships, peer groups, and romantic partners
are the three types of peer relationships of central concern. Each
of these peer relationships represents a different developmental
context, has distinct qualities, and affords unique opportunities
for meeting developmental needs and experiencing peer influ­
ence relevant to the development of body image. I include only
literature that has independent assessments of these different
types of relationships rather than a global summary of peer
relations.
The review is also limited to research that includes specific
assessment and evaluation of body image satisfaction (includ­
ing body esteem, body dissatisfaction, and body shame), that
is, the degree to which individuals accept their weight and
shape. Related issues concerning body change strategies such
as dieting and muscle building activities are included when
relevant.
Encyclopedia of Body Image and Human Appearance, Volume 1 doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-384925-0.00042-0
friends Close dyadic relationships that are voluntary and
founded on mutual liking, cooperation, and trust.
friendship cliques Interconnected associations among
pairs of friends are termed cliques or friendship networks
(typically ranging from 3 to 10 dyads).
peer acceptance The degree to which individuals are liked
or not liked by classmates in a setting such as a classroom
or school grade. It is determined by peer ratings or peer
nominations by the group members.
peer reputational popularity An individual’s social
reputation that is an indicator of status among peers rather
than acceptance and is based on nominations for
perceived membership in the ‘popular’ crowd.
sexual harassment Unwanted, sexualized behaviors and
comments by others that make one uncomfortable or fearful.
Conceptual Model of Body Image and Peer Influences
Development always takes place in a context with individual
characteristics and multiple levels of the sociocultural environ­
ment influencing the trajectory of development. The levels of
the environment range from the sites of daily interaction such
as with peers to the overarching institutions and beliefs that
represent the society and culture.
What do individuals contribute to interactions and relation­
ships? Individuals bring an embodied physical being that is
distinguished by attractiveness and physical size (frequently
indicated by body mass index (BMI)). They also bring values,
expectations, and cognitive orientations about body image
such as internalized appearance ideals that they have learned
in the family and through the media. In addition, individuals
approach peer relationships with reflected appraisals from
prior experiences of acceptance and disapproval by peers.
These expectations and conceptions about peers include the
importance of social acceptance generally, the degree to
which social approval is based on appearance specifically, and
the fear of potential rejection based on appearance.
Status issues also inform the qualities and characteristics of
peer interactions, especially in peer groups. Participants in
various peer relations are not always equal partners. Certain
individuals have greater status as leaders or dominant figures in
the peer hierarchy. Individuals with greater status are more
likely to serve as models and arbiters of social norms and
expectations. Furthermore, individuals may strive to gain
greater status and approval by emulating the behaviors and
strategies associated with status.
The development of body image emerges then from the
reciprocal interaction and transformations of the individual
in relational and cultural contexts. Within the peer world,
individuals participate in and create an appearance culture
that is governed by norms and expectations that are modeled
257
258 Body Image: Peer Influences
and reinforced by peers. These norms and expectations are
highly gendered and impose distinct appearance constraints
on males and females. The accumulated experiences within
the peer appearance culture thus reflect and shape individual
behaviors and attitudes about body image of self and others.
The relational experiences with peers are embedded in lar­
ger sociocultural contexts that broadly communicate beliefs,
values, and norms about appearance and gender. This article
highlights the school context as a sociocultural setting of
special relevance to peer influence on body image because it
is the site where peers congregate most regularly to interact.
Characteristics of the school context that are related to body
image are discussed later in this article.
Peer Influence
The basic human needs for approval and belonging are primary
forces propelling individuals to form close relationships and
strive for peer acceptance. They are the foundations on which
peer influence is based. We consider two major ways in which
peer influence occurs.
Social norms serve as guides for acceptable behavior with
peers. The social norms for appearance in peer groups and
friendship networks are learned and adopted through direct
and indirect experiences that can be positive (praise for appear­
ance) or negative (teasing about weight/shape, rejection).
High-status members of peer groups are visible models who
help to shape standards of behavior that are perceived as
normative. Many times, individuals change their behavior to
conform to perceived norms rather than the actual norm. There
is strong social reinforcement to adhere to social norms and
achieve an ideal body shape among children, adolescents, and
young adults in order to gain or maintain approval of peers.
Shared practices represent another way in which peers influ­
ence body image. Participation in shared practices such as
appearance conversations, dieting, or muscle building serves
to consolidate relationships and confirm or enhance the con­
tinuation of acceptance. The shared practices consolidate the
special shared identity with friends or members of the peer
group. In these ways, friends and peers become important
collaborators in the development of body image.
The next section examines the defining characteristics of
each type of peer relations, discusses methodological con­
cerns, and presents the evidence on peer influence in the
relationships.
Friends and Cliques
The friendship context is of special importance for body image
development because of the value placed on having and main­
taining close friendships and the sheer amount of time spent
with friends. Friendships are voluntary, dyadic relationships
founded on mutual liking, cooperation, and trust. Connections
among pairs of friends are termed cliques or friendship networks
(typically ranging from 3 to 10 dyads). Friendship quality and
friendship similarity and socialization are aspects of friends’
influence on body image.
Friendship Qualities
Although much has been made of the beneficial contribution
of friendships to development, positive friendship characteris­
tics such as communication, trust, and acceptance are not
typically correlated with body dissatisfaction and do not
appear to serve as protective factors. Instead negative friendship
qualities (alienation and conflict) and insecurity about accep­
tance are the features most frequently related to body
dissatisfaction. For example, high-school girls who report
more negative qualities or feel less accepted by their friends
are more likely to be dissatisfied with their bodies. Girls who
believe thinness will improve their friendships are more likely
to diet and be concerned about their body image, presumably
to gain greater acceptance. The prospective contribution of
friendship acceptance to body image has been confirmed in a
longitudinal study of early adolescent boys and girls. For these
students, loss of friendships over a school year predicted
decreases in body esteem, but not in any other dimension of
self-esteem. These findings indicate the importance of per­
ceived acceptance by friends for a positive body image and
confirm a connection between social acceptance by friends
and acceptance of the embodied self that deserves further
study.
Friendship Influence
The concern with peer pressure and conformity has generated
interest in distinguishing similarity (homophily) from sociali­
zation in friendships. A major research issue is if friends are
attracted to each other because of existing similarities in beliefs
and behaviors, or if friends socialize each other and become
more similar over time. The evidence suggests that both pro­
cesses are at work in dyadic and friendship groups.
There are methodological issues to consider before examin­
ing the literature on friendship similarity and socialization.
Much of the research on friendship relies on the perspective
of one person. Friendships that are based on self-report by only
one person are unverified without a reciprocal nomination and
should be considered perceived friendship rather than con­
firmed friendship. These unilateral friendship perceptions
have limitations when analyzing similarity and influence pro­
cesses. Similarity between friends could be heightened when
one person rates the qualities of self and friend, either because
of assumed similarity by the rater or because of shared method
variance. Furthermore, friendships that are unreciprocated do
not demonstrate the same qualities as close, mutual friends and
may have different patterns of similarity and influence.
Independent assessments of friendship and individual charac­
teristics provide a more valid estimate of friendship similarity.
Studies that take into account initial levels of similarity such as
longitudinal or experimental research provide more valid esti­
mates of friendship socialization.
Friend similarity
Research spanning the period from childhood through the
college years has evaluated selection similarity among friends
by correlating the characteristics of friends reported by one or
both friends. The preponderance of evidence indicates that
friends and friendship cliques tend to have similar body
image satisfaction and BMI, similar concerns about weight,

attitudes toward the importance of appearance, and experi­
ences in appearance change strategies such as dieting,
disordered eating, and muscle building. The greater similarity
among friends has been documented both when data are gen­
erated by one person and when there are independent
assessments from friends. The magnitude of the relationships
tends to be diminished or eliminated when independent
assessments are analyzed.
There are two major caveats that limit our knowledge about
friendship similarity and body image. First, most research on
mutual friendships and cliques has been done on women’s
friendships. Clearly, there is a need to describe and explain
the influence patterns for men’s friendships as well as those
for diverse racial/cultural groups. Second, most studies do not
examine the length of the friendships and therefore may over-
attribute friendship similarity to selection biases and
underestimate the role of influence processes that may have
taken place earlier in the relationships.
An interesting approach to gauging the role of selection for
friendship similarity has been to examine the characteristics of
college women seeking to join specific groups, such as sorori­
ties, before friendships have been formed. Women who
intended to compete for sorority affiliation had levels of body
dissatisfaction, body shame, and drive for thinness that were
similar to existing members of sororities, but distinctly higher
than those reported for women who did not intend to join the
group. These results highlight the role of similarity in the
self-selection of affiliation preferences that should be extended
to other cultural, racial, and gender groups.
Friendship socialization
There is also evidence of social influence within friendships
regarding body image and related issues. There are several
prominent examples. In research on college women, body dis­
satisfaction and disordered eating have been found to become
more similar over time for friendship cliques within sororities.
Longitudinal analyses of friendship networks among adults
have confirmed that the probability of gaining weight and
becoming obese is greatest if a mutual friend becomes obese
rather than unilateral friends, siblings, or spouses.
There are several reasons why friendships provide a potent
context for influencing body image development. Individuals
are likely to identify with the friends, model their behavior, and
use them as guides for what is normative. When friendships are
valued relationships, individuals may engage in shared prac­
tices and adopt attitudes and values that generate social
approval and acceptance by the friend. In these ways, percep­
tions of friends’ dieting, friends’ concern with weight, and/or
their level of investment in bodybuilding come to be integrated
into an individual’s attitudinal and behavioral repertoire.
An important way in which friendships and cliques influ­
ence body image is by creating appearance cultures. Friends
and cliques vary in their investment in appearance and thus
provide distinct contexts in which to influence body image.
In cross-sectional studies of adolescents, appearance-oriented
cliques report talking more about dieting, acknowledging the
importance of friends in the decision to diet, comparing their
bodies more often, and teasing each other about weight and
shape. In longitudinal research, perceived friends’ dieting and
perceived friends’ desire for thinness have been prospective risk
Body Image: Peer Influences 259
factors for body dissatisfaction among elementary and second­
ary school girls.
One mechanism of influence occurs through conversations
about appearance and body change strategies such as dieting
and muscle building. These types of conversations have been
documented across the childhood through college years. The
attention and reinforcement given to appearance issues in con­
versations with friends highlight appearance as an important
attribute, support the construction of appearance norms and
ideals, and encourage evaluating the self relative to others on
physical attributes. Research confirms that women and men
who report more frequent conversations with their friends
about appearance also report greater body dissatisfaction. In
prospective research on adolescent girls, appearance conversa­
tions with friends are a prospective contributor to body
dissatisfaction and thus contribute to feelings of body dissatis­
faction over time.
Appearance conversations can also train individuals to
be highly evaluative of appearance. Among adolescent and col­
lege women, ‘fat talk’ (“I’m so fat”) has been highlighted as a
discourse style in which individuals repeatedly criticize and
lament the size of their own bodies in the presence of peers.
It has been suggested that ‘fat talk’ solicits peer assurances
(“No, you’re not”) and promotes group solidarity. However,
the repeated experiences of verbalizing these negative
self-evaluations have the potential to normalize self-disparaging
discourse and internalize a critical judgmental stance toward
one’s own body, increasing the likelihood of body dissatisfac­
tion. Such an effect has been noted in experimental studies of
college women. Women exposed to fat talk reported more body
dissatisfaction than those exposed to neutral talk.
The significant contributions of appearance conversations
with friends to body dissatisfaction provide evidence that the
appearance culture within close relationships is an influential
context for body image among children and youth. However,
there is some question about the generalizability of the find­
ings across gender and racial/ethnic groups. For example, ‘fat
talk’ conversations are less prevalent among African American
adolescent girls who report more positive appearance feedback
among friends and greater body satisfaction. Furthermore, the
specific characteristics of appearance conversations have not
been as well explicated across groups. For example, although
adolescent boys have reported that they talk with their friends
about muscle building at levels greater than girls report talking
about dieting, the self-report data do not provide descriptions
of the conversations so that less is known about norm-setting
dynamics and friend influence patterns among men. More
observational or qualitative research would clarify the role of
these conversations in the development of body image among
men.
Peer Reputational Popularity and Acceptance
Individuals must function at school with classmates who are
not necessarily friends or network members. In elementary and
secondary school contexts, the major research concerns have
been on status differences between peer groups and the degree
of acceptance within arbitrarily assigned groups of age-mates.
Unlike the friendship literature that focuses on girls, this
260 Body Image: Peer Influences
research has included boys, although it has been primarily
based on White samples.
The term ‘popular’ in the peer literature can be confusing in
that it can refer either to likability and acceptance among
students (sociometric popularity) or to perceived membership
in one of the reputation-based peer crowds (‘popular’, ‘jocks’,
‘brains’). In order to minimize confusion in this article, I will
use the term peer reputational popularity for research based on
nominations for perceived membership in the popular crowd
and peer acceptance to describe research that has assessed
sociometric ratings or nominations regarding likability among
peers.
Peer Reputational Popularity
Peer reputational popularity (also known as social reputation
or peer-perceived popularity) is an indicator of status among
peers rather than acceptance and is based on nominations for
perceived membership in the ‘popular’ crowd. Peer-perceived
popularity emerges primarily in the adolescent years and
reflects status and dominance within the social hierarchy in
the school.
Popular students are at the top of the social hierarchy and
typically have greater access to the attention and resources of
the school community, many times through their association
with athletics and cheerleading. Even though the direct evi­
dence to connect social status to body dissatisfaction has been
inconsistent, there are several ways in which popularity has
been linked to body image satisfaction.
Popular students are the focus of attention by other students
and are identified as the most prominent source of peer appear­
ance pressure presumably because ‘ideal’ body shapes are
evident in popular groups. Higher levels of popularity are
associated with boys’ reports of thinner, muscular figures,
whereas heavier figures are related to lower levels of popularity.
Among girls, smaller body shapes are a factor connected to
popularity. Popular students then serve as models for how to
look in order to garner attention and social prominence within
the peer world.
The appearance dynamics within the popular crowd reveal a
heightened pressure to achieve and maintain the ‘ideal’ bodies
that classmates notice. The concern with keeping up appear­
ance helps to explain the finding that adolescent girls with
higher levels of self-rated social status were less likely to gain
weight over a 2-year period than girls who viewed themselves
as lower in social status among peers at school. In fact, the
likelihood of dieting presumably to achieve and maintain the
ideal appearance increases with popularity status for both
popular girls and boys.
Peer Acceptance
Peer acceptance is distinct from friendship in that it refers to the
degree to which individuals are liked or not liked by classmates
in a setting such as a classroom or school grade. The level of
acceptance of an individual is typically determined by socio­
metric ratings or nominations by peers in the setting.
Individuals who receive the highest summary scores are con­
sidered to be well liked or sociometrically popular and those
who receive the lowest scores are considered to be the least
liked or rejected.
Not everyone is or wants to be popular. Most individuals do
want to be accepted and liked by peers. The experience of being
liked by peers has tended to be concurrently associated with
more positive body image. Still there has been inconsistency in
the relationship between peer-reported acceptance measures
and body image satisfaction, probably due to variations in
measurement and age of participants.
There has been impressive consistency, however, in the
connection between the perception of acceptance by peers
and body image regardless of gender and age. Individuals
who are uncertain about their acceptance by peers are much
more likely to seek validation from others and base their worth
on the reflected evaluations from peers. In these instances,
individuals who think that social acceptance is achieved
through conformity to body ideals are vulnerable to body
dissatisfaction. These individuals conceptualize peer accep­
tance as contingent on appearance and often engage in ‘if
only’ cognitions related to acceptance. For girls, these beliefs
have been evaluated for being thinner (“If only I were thinner,
then boys would be more attracted to me”); for boys, the
focus has been on being thin as well as more muscular
(“If only I were more muscular, then girls would like me more”).
Appearance-based peer acceptance has been documented
among elementary school children, adolescents, and college
students. Although this construct has been labeled in a variety
of ways, the results of the research are highly consistent. When
peer acceptance is perceived to be based on appearance, girls
and boys are at greater risk for negative body image.
Among college students, there have not been assessments of
acceptance within classrooms or schools. The issues of peer
acceptance still shape the levels of body satisfaction through
anxiety over fear of rejection or negative evaluation. Among
college students, research on appearance-based rejection sensi­
tivity demonstrates that individuals’ anxious expectations
about rejection are associated specifically with the belief that
their appearance will determine whether others will accept
them. This result applies to both women and men, but the
strength of the relationship is greater for women.
There is a reality in the peer world that acceptance is related
to body shape and size. Peer acceptance has typically been
associated with attractiveness and athleticism across the school
years, suggesting that students who conform to appearance
standards are more likely to be accepted by peers. Weight and
shape are identified across ages as among the most important
attributes for attractiveness for women and men. There is strong
social reinforcement to achieve an ideal body shape, and sanc­
tions are applied for deviation from this ideal. The effects of
deviating from normative expectations or appearance ideals are
evident in that overweight women and men are less accepted by
peers and are more socially isolated than normal-weight peers.
Peer Evaluations: Teasing and Sexual Harassment
Peers directly communicate their critiques of appearance via
teasing. Appearance teasing is a potent way to reinforce appear­
ance standards and sanction deviations from the norm. This
critical, negative, and frequent aspect of peer life is evident from
childhood through the college years. Because teasing generally
is deemed socially acceptable, especially among friends, the
effects of appearance teasing can be underestimated.

Appearance teasing is one of the most common types of
teasing and has great potential to generate negative affect and
interpersonal distress. Teasing about weight is considered to be
the most hurtful form and least humorous. It is not surprising
then that appearance teasing has been related to lower body
satisfaction for both females and males regardless of race or
BMI.
For many individuals, appearance teasing also occurs
repeatedly and between peers who are typically unequal in
status. Under these conditions, teasing is no longer innocuous
banter, but should be considered a form of bullying. The
accumulating literature on the connection between victimiza­
tion and bullying indicates that overweight or obese students
compared to normal weight are more likely to be targets of
appearance teasing and bullying that begins in the elementary
school years and can occur over years. The impact of this
appearance-related victimization as evaluated in cross-sectional
research has been to increase negative body image for all stu­
dents, but especially for overweight and obese adolescents.
Interestingly, the prospective contribution of peer appear­
ance teasing to body image satisfaction has not been as evident.
When evaluated in longitudinal, multidimensional models,
appearance teasing is typically not a significant contributor to
changes in body dissatisfaction. It is premature, however, to
assert that teasing is not implicated in the development of body
dissatisfaction. The individual reports of the emotional diffi­
culties associated with appearance teasing are compelling and
confirm the importance of these experiences for individuals.
Alternative strategies and models are needed to uncover the
linkages between teasing and body dissatisfaction. For exam­
ple, the limited time frames and number of assessments in
most studies may not reveal the reciprocal dynamics in early
development between teasing and body image satisfaction for
children and preadolescents, especially if the effects are evident
only for a subset of individuals. Moderating models may be
especially important in identifying the meaning of appearance
teasing for body dissatisfaction and other indicators of
well-being. Moderating effects have been reported in a recent
prospective study of college women. In this study, higher levels
of body dissatisfaction were positively related to residual
increases in depression in a 1-month follow-up, primarily
among women experiencing weight-related teasing. These find­
ings suggest that further research that examines the role of
moderators is clearly needed for understanding the impact of
teasing in the development of body image.
Sexual harassment is another way in which negative peer
experiences are connected to the development of body image.
Sexual harassment refers to unwanted, sexualized behaviors
and comments by others that make one uncomfortable or
fearful. Sexual harassment by peers is evident during elemen­
tary school years, increases during puberty, and becomes more
widely documented during middle school and high school
when up to 90% of high-school students report sexual harass­
ment. Rates of peer sexual harassment have been documented
as either similar for both genders or at greater levels for boys.
Sexual harassment has a negative impact on body esteem
and other behaviors. A recent study of fifth graders confirmed
that peer sexual harassment was linked to body shame for both
girls and boys. The association between sexual harassment and
body dissatisfaction has been verified also for adolescents and
college students. Some of the research findings indicate that the
Body Image: Peer Influences 261
effect of sexual harassment on body image is stronger for girls,
but there is evidence that sexual harassment represents a sig­
nificant problem for boys as well. These data are
overwhelmingly cross-sectional and occasionally retrospective.
Prospective data are needed to test these relationships.
Romantic Partners
The sexual maturity that emerges during adolescence brings
with it an interest in romantic partners. The body concerns of
adolescents and emerging adults are driven in part by concerns
with attractiveness to potential romantic partners. The research
on romantic partners and body image is rather limited. The
research has focused primarily on White adolescent girls,
whereas both women and men have been included in investi­
gations of young adults.
During adolescence, developmental age and normative
expectations for dating figure prominently in the relationship
between romantic relations and body image. Body image dis­
satisfaction and dieting are greater for early adolescent girls
who are sexually involved with boys, especially for White ado­
lescents. Dating does not appear to have this direct relationship
to body dissatisfaction and dieting for high-school girls when
romantic relationships are more normative. It is early dating
with sexual involvement that is associated with increases in
body dissatisfaction. For high-school girls, the linkage between
body dissatisfaction and romantic relations is based more on
the importance of being popular with boys and the perceived
importance of thinness to boys. If being popular with the
opposite sex and having a romantic partner are deemed as
important, then adolescents are more likely to have negative
body image.
The importance of romantic relationships has also been
investigated for college men and women. College men and
women who feel a sense of urgency about having a romantic
partner are more likely to experience body dissatisfaction or
body shame. However, having a romantic relationship, even a
positive one, does not serve as a protective factor, especially for
women.
Body shape and weight are important features for attracting
romantic partners for men and women during adolescence and
young adulthood. Research indicates that by adolescence,
young men have internalized the sociocultural beliefs regard­
ing attractiveness and thinness and tend to look for romantic
partners based on physical appearance more so than women.
For men, thinness is important in making a woman appear
attractive and in deciding whether to go out with her.
Regardless of age, obese women, but not obese men, are
more likely than their peers to report no dating experience. In
college, women who were not dating had higher BMIs than
women involved in casual dating or exclusive romantic rela­
tionships. BMI differences did not distinguish dating levels for
men. These phenomena create indirect pressure on women to
be thin and increase the likelihood of body dissatisfaction.
It is remarkable how little information on the relationship
between body image and romantic partners is available for
adolescent boys, students of color, and gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgender students. Given the importance of romantic
relationships in adolescence and adulthood, this is a serious
262 Body Image: Peer Influences
oversight that limits our understanding of the role of romantic
relationships in the development of body image.
Sociocultural Contributions to Peer Influence: The Case
of the School Context
The family and media are prominent sociocultural factors that
have been demonstrated to impact body image. The school
context has been less frequently identified and investigated as
a factor shaping experiences that influence body image even
though schools are primary settings within which experiences
with peers unfold. Students are surrounded by literally hun­
dreds of peers at school who represent a variety of shapes, sizes,
colors, and features. The social meaning given to these visible
appearance characteristics reflects not only the characteristics of
the individual students and peer groups, but also the structure
and norms of particular schools and communities. The limited
research on the school context examines gender composition,
age structure, activity opportunities, inclusion climate, and
appearance norms. The extant studies focus primarily on girls
in middle and high schools.
Gender Composition of School
The effects of gender composition on appearance concerns
have been evaluated primarily by comparing adolescent girls’
body dissatisfaction and other appearance concerns in private
same-sex and coeducational school settings. The findings sug­
gest that the cultural norms for the idealized body image are
shared by adolescent girls regardless of school structure, but
that the linkage between thinness and achievement is rein­
forced more strongly in single-sex schools. Although the
studies included schools of comparable socioeconomic status
(SES), neither SES differences nor other characteristics poten­
tially related to school selection biases were tested directly.
Furthermore, similar studies have not been done for males or
across racial/ethnic groups. Given the limitation in the current
research, the impact of gender composition on body dissatis­
faction needs further investigation.
Age Composition of Schools
Variations in the age groups that are included in schools allow
for an examination of the ways older peers may serve as models
for the socialization of appearance ideals and norms. For exam­
ple, when early adolescent girls are in contact with older
adolescents at school, they are more likely to feel overweight,
to identify with a thinner ideal shape, to diet, to have friends
who are dieting, and to have lower self-esteem. Because the
schools in the research were coeducational, the socialization
may have been affected by the behavior and status of both
older adolescent girls and boys.
Activity Opportunities and Status
Participation in extracurricular activities is one way in which
students develop a sense of competence while engaging in
meaningful activity with peers. Activity opportunities vary
across schools. Research comparing middle-school girls in
two middle-class White suburban school districts indicates
that body satisfaction was more likely when there was greater
access to after-school activities, especially sports. Participation
in activities generally and in (some) sports specifically appears
to bolster positive feeling about physical competence and
enhance body satisfaction.
Extracurricular school activities are also an avenue for creat­
ing status differences between students. Certain activities,
especially sports and cheerleading, frequently garner greater
attention, dedicated schooltime, and community support com­
pared to other activities. Students in these activities acquire
greater status within the school and peer worlds by virtue of
their participation in these activities. Schools thus create and
endorse a status system that is tied directly and indirectly to the
peer appearance culture.
Peer Acceptance and Inclusion
Peer groups in school are not random, but reflect the socio­
cultural forces in the community and school. Furthermore,
individuals and cliques, especially during early adolescence,
strive for group identity through inadvertent or active exclu­
sion. Such cliquishness can limit affiliation among students
and undermine a sense of acceptance within the broader peer
community. Self-perceptions of weight satisfaction have been
linked to these issues of social acceptance. Girls who felt that
cliques were an important aspect of school life were more likely
to report weight dissatisfaction.
Why is there greater exclusivity at some schools compared to
others? It is not entirely clear. The students could be reflecting
the clarity or rigidity of the status hierarchy as endorsed by the
school personnel and community. Schools vary in the degree to
which they actively promote a climate of inclusion among stu­
dents with potentially important consequences for acceptance of
diversity generally and appearance diversity specifically.
Appearance Norms
School norms are a reflection of the shared practices and
expectations within the school community. There is significant
variation between schools in appearance norms, especially
regarding weight and eating expectations. For example, some
schools more widely practice dieting behaviors that are pre­
sumably governed by peer endorsement of social norms. The
school factors such as an emphasis on competitiveness may be
related to these differences in appearance norms.
Schools and Prevention
Schools are the context in which children, adolescents, and
young adults spend a good amount of time learning about
and experiencing the meaning of appearance. It is apparent
that school-level features can make a difference for body
image development, but it is now critical to expand research
efforts to include more diverse populations across gender, race,
class, sexual orientation, and their intersection in order to
better understand school context effects. It is challenging to
evaluate the role of the schools in the development and main­
tenance of body image. Large data sets that include sufficient
numbers of schools and students within schools are needed to
account for the variety of aspects that can influence body image
and peer experiences.

Knowledge about the school context is particularly important
for intervention programs. School practices that actively create
status differences among students and that endorse appearance
ideals that promote unhealthy behavior should be of concern to
school personnel and examined for change. Schools have the
potential to moderate the negative impact of societal messages
about appearance and to shape the characteristics of peer rela­
tions within the school boundaries if there is explicit concern
and attention to the health and well-being of students.
Conclusion
The literature on peer influence on body image has advanced
substantially in recent years. There is a growing body of
research that supports the proposition that peers are an impor­
tant influence on the development of body image. This
evidence is derived from research on the similarity and sociali­
zation processes within friendships, the influence of peer
reputational groups, the importance of perceived peer accep­
tance, and the desire for romantic partners.
At the same time, it is clear that the basis for the association
between peer influences and body image is rather narrow. Most
of the research is limited to White students, especially women.
There is clearly more work to be done. It is time to add breadth
and depth to research on peer influence on body image.
The breadth would be achieved by examining more diverse
populations in regard to gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orienta­
tion, socioeconomic background, and school contexts.
Research on body image among diverse populations has
expanded in recent years, but the explicit linkage to peer rela­
tionships has not been as evident. There are virtually no studies
examining differences in the roles of friends and peer groups in
the development of body image across cultural, racial, and
ethnic groups or sexual orientation. Furthermore, cultures
that support same-gender schools or segregate genders may
have distinct dynamics affecting body image that have not yet
been identified. Knowledge about peer influence will also be
expanded through more deliberate examination of the socio­
cultural influences of the school context, especially across
socioeconomic lines and geographical locations.
The depth of knowledge would be advanced by more con­
sistent attention to the processes and mechanisms of influence
for each type of peer relations (friendships, cliques, peer repu­
tational popularity, and peer acceptance). Although global
assessments of peer relations have helped to identify peers as
important contributors to body image, global measures mask
the relative contribution of the different types of peers to body
image and do not provide sufficient information on the ways in
which peer influence unfolds and for whom. In addition, it is
important to examine the processes across different groups. For
example, there is some evidence that the processes and
mechanisms of peer influence function similarly for males
and females, even though females have greater levels of body
dissatisfaction and need for approval. Friend similarity in body
shape and size, the relevance of the appearance culture, and the
role of social norms in influencing conformity to appearance
ideals appear to be similar for males and females. However,
research on friend similarity and influence has not been ade­
quately evaluated for males from diverse racial/cultural groups,
Body Image: Peer Influences 263
so it is premature to conclude that processes are similar for
males and females and across diverse groups.
There are also methodological concerns that should be
addressed in future research. Comparisons across studies
could be made more readily if there were greater clarity in
labeling of constructs such as peer acceptance and greater con­
sistency in the measurement of the different types of peer
relationships. These measurements should include both
self-report and peer nominations on the reciprocal nature of
the relationships. There is a need for more longitudinal and
experimental research in order to chart the influence processes
and mechanisms more clearly.
The potential benefits of expanding the research in these
ways are substantial. Over a decade ago, Paxton elaborated
ways to include peer relations into all levels of body image
prevention and intervention. The need still exists to design and
evaluate programs that address peer influences on body image.
Expanded research on peer relationships could help to target
more clearly the different types of relationships, the relation­
ship features, and school settings that most clearly impact body
image satisfaction at all ages.
See also: Body Image Development – Adolescent Boys; Body
Image Development – Adolescent Girls; Body Image
Development – Adult Men; Body Image Development – Adult
Women; Body Image Development – Boy Children; Body Image
Development – Girl Children; Body Image and “Fat Talk”; Body
Image in Social Contexts; Body Image: Familial Influences; Media
Influences on Female Body Image; Media Influences on Male
Body Image; Preventing Body Image Problems: Public Policy
Approaches; Preventing Body Image Problems: School-Based
Approaches; Social Comparison Theory and Body Image;
Sociocultural Perspectives on Body Image; Teasing,
Appearance-Related.
Further Reading
Calogero, R. M., Park, L. E., Rahemtulla, Z. K., and Williams, K. C. D. (2010). Predicting
excessive body image concerns among British university students: The unique role
of appearance-based rejection sensitivity. Body Image 7, 78–81.
Carlson Jones, D. (2004). Body image among adolescent girls and boys: A longitudinal
study. Developmental Psychology 40, 823–835.
Cash, T. F., and Smolak, L. (eds.) (2011). Body Image: A Handbook of Science, Practice,
and Prevention, 2nd ed. New York: Guilford Press.
Eisenberg, M. E., Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M., and Perry, C. (2005). The role of
social norms and friends’ influences on unhealthy weight-control behaviors among
adolescent girls. Social Science & Medicine 60, 1165–1173.
Hutchinson, D. M., and Rapee, R. M. (2007). Do friends share similar body image and
eating problems? The role of social networks and peer influences in early
adolescence. Behaviour Research and Therapy 45, 1557–1577.
Lunde, C., Frisen, A., and Hwang, C. P. (2007). Ten-year-old girls’ and boys’ body
composition and peer victimization experiences: Prospective associations with body
satisfaction. Body Image 4, 11–28.
Paxton, S. J. (1999). Peer relations, body image, and disordered eating in adolescent
girls: Implications for prevention. In: Piran, N., Levine, M. P., and Steiner-Adair, C.
(eds.) Preventing Eating Disorders: A Handbook of Interventions and Special
Challenges, pp. 134–147. Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel.
Wang, S. S., Houshyar, S., and Prinstein, M. J. (2006). Adolescent girls’ and
boys’ weight-related health behaviors and cognitions: Associations with reputation-
and preference-based peer status. Health Psychology 25, 658–663.