Racial/ethnic identity and perceived body image among Canadian adolescents

The perception of one's own body image is an important determinant of adolescent health. While positive body image is associated with health-promoting behaviours, negative body image may be related to engagement in health-compromising risk behaviours. Hypothetically, an adolescent's perceived body image may also be influenced by racial/cultural ideals and related gendered expectations, governed by social norms within distinct cultural groups. Variations in perceived body image by race/ethnicity remain largely unexplored in Canada, even descriptively. A descriptive, cross-sectional study was employed using data from the 2017-2018 cycle of the Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study (weighted n = 18,766 participants). Self-perceptions of body image were described for Canadian adolescents, stratified by race/ethnicity and gender (boys vs. girls). There were two main findings. First, variations in perceptions of body image mainly varied by gender. Boys were more likely to report feeling 'too thin' while a higher proportion of girls reported feeling 'too fat'. These trends were observed across different races/ethnicities. Second, there was little variation in patterns of self-reported body image by race/ethnicity, while the gendered variations remained within all major racial/ethnic groups. Existing research on adolescent body image typically focuses on gender norms, overlooking the potential of racial and ethnic influences on body image perceptions. Our study confirms that adolescent body image does not appear to vary substantially on racial/ethnic lines among Canadian adolescents, consistent with existing studies that highlight the strong influence of gender norms on adolescent body image.