Resumo

AERTS, Denise; CHINAZZO, Hosana; SANTOS, João Alberto dos  e  OSEROW, Nara Regina. Body image perception of white and non-white female adolescents of city's Public Schools in the Municipality of Gravataí, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2011, vol.20, n.3, pp.363-372. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742011000300011.

OBJECTIVE: the study aims to investigate the body image perception of white and non-white girls according to socioeconomic status, physical activity, nutritional status, and sexual maturity. METHODOLOGY: a cross-sectional study with a sample of 710 female adolescents, enrolledfrom the 5th to the 8th grade at city's public schools of Gravataí, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 2005; the 'Body Shape Questionnaire' was used to assess body image perception; other variables were collected by means of other self-administered instruments; the associations of interest were tested using the chi-square test. RESULTS: with regard to body image, 60.0% of the girls were not concerned with that topic and 4.6% were seriously concerned; there was association between body image perception and skin color (p=0.005), nutritional status (p=0.000), and sexual maturity (p=0.000); these associations were also significant even after controllingfor skin color. CONCLUSION: results suggest that white skin color as well as excessive weight and post-puberty sexual maturity status are risk factors for dissatisfaction with the body image among school teenagers in this population.

Palavras-chave : adolescent health; students; body image; skin color.

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