Body build and self-perception in 13- and 14-year-old Israel children and their relationship to obesity
Guggenheim, K.; Poznanski, R.; Kaufmann, N.A.
Israel Journal of Medical Sciences 9(2): 120-128
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-2180 PMID: 4696149 Document Number: 60455
Height, weight and skin-fold thickness over the triceps muscle were measured in 499 children 13 to 14 years old. Self-perception of body build and the subject's satisfaction with his body size and shape were assessed. The population sample was divided into 4 social classes according to father's occupational trade and household crowding.There was no great difference between boys and girls with respect to mean height and weight. Mean relative weight was close to standard figures, but 11% of the boys and 9% of the girls weighed more than 120% of the standard weight for age and sex. Mean skin-fold thickness of girls was greater than that of boys. Weight was closely associated with skin-fold thickness. Neither weight nor skin-fold thickness was associated with social class.Of the boys 26 and of the girls 15% rated themselves as thin, 61% of children of both sexes as medium and 13% of the boys and 25% of the girls as obese. Self-perception of body build was more closely related to weight than to skin-fold thickness. Two-thirds of the boys and over half of the girls were satisfied with their weight, but dissatisfaction with size and shape was often expressed. Boys wished to have larger muscles and chest circumference and many girls, even when not obese, wanted to be smaller in size and shape. Most of the obese children wanted to lose weight.