Body satissfaction among muslim adolescents with western and non-western dress preferences

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate body satisfaction and readiness to accept Western standards of beauty (thin-ideal) among Muslim female adolescents with different strength of religious beliefs, manifested in different dress preferences. The sample consisted of 150 high school students. All students were Muslim, but half of them accept Western dress preferences, and other half follow traditional way of dressing wearing a head veil (hijab). The instruments were: Contour Drawing Rating Scale for measuring body satisfaction and SATAQ-3 for measuring sociocultural attitudes towards body appearance. Muslim adolescents wearing a hijab were significantly less likely to express drive for thinness or pressure to attain a thin-ideal standard of beauty than adolescents wearing Western dress style (t = -5,761; p<0,001). They are also more satisfied with their body shape, than adolescents accepting Western dress standards (t = 3,029 ; p<0,005). The results suggest the significance of Western cultural pressures in existence of body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness in adolescents. Such pressures could be the important risk factor for developing of eating disorders.