Body image and self perception among African American women aged 18-30

K-REx Repository

Show simple item record

dc.contributor.author West, Shelia F.
dc.date.accessioned 2012-11-27T15:14:30Z
dc.date.available 2012-11-27T15:14:30Z
dc.date.issued 2012-11-27
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15053
dc.description.abstract The purpose of this study was to explore how African American women think and feel about their bodies. Specifically, this study examined how Black women define beauty by means of variables such as body shape, skin complexion, and hair texture; whether African American women ages 18-30 compared themselves to media images; and if so, did comparison to these media images impact African American women’s body satisfaction. In addition, this study explored if African American women felt pressure to adopt beauty standards attributed to the dominant culture, as well as the role of racial identity in forming beauty standards and social comparison behavior. Twelve African American women were interviewed and findings of this exploratory research illustrated that the Black community has different standards than the traditional beauty standards of the U.S. Even though interviewees articulated standards of beauty for women in the Black community, there was a lack of uniformity in how these women felt about their own attractiveness: some identified with the Black beauty standards, while others did not. In addition, opinions varied regarding Black women’s engagement in social comparison behavior and whether it was related to racial identity or body satisfaction. Limitations of study included: how Black women define social comparison behavior and racial identity, self-identification of participants, and the lack of Caucasian women included in this study. However, this research still provided rich data exploring Black women’s perceptions of beauty among other issues within the Black community. Future research is required to better understand influences shaping standards of beauty within this subculture of the United States and recommendations are provided in the last chapter. en_US
dc.language.iso en_US en_US
dc.publisher Kansas State University en
dc.subject Body image en_US
dc.subject Body satisfaction en_US
dc.subject African American women en_US
dc.subject Social comparison theory en_US
dc.subject Beauty en_US
dc.subject Racial identity en_US
dc.title Body image and self perception among African American women aged 18-30 en_US
dc.type Thesis en_US
dc.description.degree Master of Science en_US
dc.description.level Masters en_US
dc.description.department Department of Apparel, Textiles, and Interior Design en_US
dc.description.advisor Melody LeHew en_US
dc.subject.umi African American Studies (0296) en_US
dc.subject.umi Social Psychology (0451) en_US
dc.subject.umi Women's Studies (0453) en_US
dc.date.published 2012 en_US
dc.date.graduationmonth December en_US


Files in this item

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Search K-REx


Browse

My Account

Statistics








Center for the

Advancement of Digital

Scholarship

cads@k-state.edu