health school

Body image
Measure
• Do you think your body is…? (much too thin/a
bit too thin/ about the right size/a bit too fat/
much too fat)
• At present are you on a diet of doing
something else to lose weight? (No, my weight
is fine/No, but I should lost some weight/No,
because I need to put on weight/Yes)
Just over half (56%) of young people reported their body
weight was “about the right size”. Overall, boys were more
likely to report their body being “about the right size” (60%
of boys v. 52% of girls). Younger adolescents were more
likely to say their body weight was “about the right size”;
64% of 11 year olds, 55% of 13 year olds and 47% of 15 year
olds. This age difference was present for both boys and
girls – the likelihood of believing your body is the “right size”
decreased with age in both boys and girls, and across all
three age groups girls were less likely to report their body to
be the right size (Figure 3.17).
Figure 3.17: Young people who feel their body is “about the right size”
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
66%
62%
60%
49%
53%
41%
Boys
Girls
10%
0%
11 years
13 years 15 years
Base: All respondents in 2014
Around 15% of all young people reported their body was
“too thin”. Overall, boys were more likely than girls to say
they thought their body was “too thin” (18% of boys v.
11% of girls). Boys and girls show different patterns across
the three age groups; for boys the likelihood of reporting
their body was “too thin” increased with age, but for girls it
decreased with age (Figure 3.18).
40
HBSC England National Report