Health and appearance concerns in young Caucasian and African-American women

The primary aim of this study was to examine the health- and appearance-related concerns of young African-American and Caucasian females.

Participants were twenty Caucasian and twenty African-American college women, who were matched on age and BMI. All participants were administered the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ), a demographics instrument, and a short inventory to assess concerns about health, appearance, and weight management, in a single testing session; height and weight data were self-reported.

African-American women and Caucasian women were not significantly different in their level of health consciousness or perception of health; however, African-American women were significantly more satisfied with their physical appearance in comparison to Caucasian women. Among African-American women, perception of health and level of health consciousness were highly related; this relationship was not found in Caucasian women. In addition, perception of health was related to satisfaction with appearance in both groups, although the relationship was stronger among African-Americans. Among Caucasian women, satisfaction with physical appearance was highly correlated with perception of weight status (from underweight to very overweight); this relationship was not found among African-American females. An inverse relationship between body mass index (BMI) and appearance evaluation was found only for Caucasian females.

These findings suggest that, on the whole, young African-American and Caucasian college females report similar evaluations of health and values placed on appearance and health, and differ primarily in terms of satisfaction with physical appearance.