Cultural, Media, and Peer Influences on Body Beauty Perceptions of Mexican American Adolescent Girls

• Published in: Journal of adolescent research Vol. 31; no. 4; pp. 474 - 501
• Main Authors: Romo, Laura F., Mireles-Rios, Rebeca, Hurtado, Aida
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.07.2016; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adolescents; Attractiveness; Body image; Cultural values; Culture; Females; Hispanic Americans; Human body; Intervention; Latin American cultural groups; Mass media; Mexican Americans; Perceptions; Residential preferences; Self Concept; Social values; Teenagers; Values; United States > US; self-esteem; Mexican American; appearance; body image; Latinas; adolescent girls
• ISSN: 0743-5584; 1552-6895
• DOI: 10.1177/0743558415594424

Social and cultural values are believed to play a role in the types of bodies that adolescent girls consider beautiful and desirable. In this article, the authors analyzed qualitative interviews from 27 Latina mid-adolescent girls (ages 14 to 16) regarding their perceptions of what body shapes and sizes are valued in Latino culture and European American culture, the nature of their conversations with friends about appearance, and whether boys and the larger community consider large body sizes to be acceptable. There was an overwhelming consensus that a slender but curvy figure is the ideal body type in Latino culture and that European Americans value unnaturally thin physiques. Themes drawn from the adolescents’ responses point to their friends’ opinions, perceptions of boys’ dating preferences, norms in their communities, and body shapes of female celebrities in Latino media outlets as sources of beauty and desirability. These findings have implications for body image intervention programs that expose Latina girls to multiple possibilities of beauty when their physical body shapes exclude them from attaining the ideal that they perceive is appreciated in Latino culture.