Thoughts about body image are common among school children – even in first grade

Thoughts about the body are common among schoolchildren – even in the youngest grades. Here, the body is often an important gateway to play and social communities: Can you hit a home run in rounders? Are you good at hiding? Can you do the latest TikTok dances? Can you run fast on the football pitch?

But from an early age, children also start thinking about who looks right and who looks wrong.

This is according to anthropologist and postdoctoral researcher Camilla Brændstrup Laursen and sociologist and PhD student Cecilie Winther Bang from the Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, based on their studies for the research project Body and Well-being: Schoolchildren’s Everyday Experiences (see fact box).

“The body’s appearance and abilities become important at an early age. As early as first grade. Girls do not want to look fat, and boys do not want to be too skinny. This has been a recurring theme throughout our studies,” says Camilla Brændstrup Laursen.

Girls do not want to look fat, and boys do not want to be too skinny.

Body image concerns emerge early

The two researchers have observed and interviewed children across different grade levels and at schools in both rural and urban areas to find out how much the body and body ideals influence children’s everyday lives.

And they play a significant role.

“We adults have probably tended to think that concerns about the body only really become important when children reach puberty, but they arise much earlier than that,” says Cecilie Winther Bang.

The body should be part of the well-being debate

The researchers therefore believe that body image and perceptions of the body should play a greater role in initiatives and discussions about children’s and young people’s well-being, starting from the earliest school years.

“We know that negative body image can lead to low self-esteem and poor well-being. But we can also see that it is not only children with larger body sizes who view themselves negatively. A large proportion do,” says Camilla Brændstrup Laursen.

We know that negative body image can lead to low self-esteem and poor well-being

The Danish School Health Survey from 2022 for example, found that 50 per cent of girls in the oldest grades felt too fat, while only 12 per cent actually had overweight.

This means that many children may feel that there is something wrong with them, that they are not good enough, or that their place in the community depends on how they look in the eyes of others. These feelings can develop into poor well-being.

Children know that the ideals are unrealistic

The two researchers’ studies are based on in-depth fieldwork, in which they both observe different classes for 20 days each and conduct group interviews with the children.

It has been important for the researchers to get to know the children and observe them in different contexts.

The children are well aware of what the “right” answers are when asked about body ideals and body image: that there are no perfect bodies, that images on Instagram are retouched, and that body ideals are unrealistic.

They would still prefer to be thin

But when the researchers get closer to the children, it becomes clear that they simultaneously believe there are no perfect bodies while most of them would still prefer to be thin themselves. And to have thin friends.

“This is a contradiction that is important to discuss with children. Because they think it is wrong to feel that way,” says Camilla Brændstrup Laursen.

Cecilie Winther Bang adds:

“Not only are they concerned about how their bodies look compared with those of others – they also feel ashamed of it, because they believe it is wrong to care about appearance.”

Remember to ask and listen

In other words, many thoughts are being processed and many emotions are being worked through in children’s minds. According to the researchers, the adults around them need to become better at asking about these thoughts and listening to them.

They urge us to listen

”They urge us to listen: ‘Why is nobody asking why we don’t want to shower?’ one of them asked. Instead, they feel that adults simply tell them that ‘they just have to do it,’” says Cecilie Winther Bang.

Researchers’ advice for talking about the body in schools:

• Acknowledge that children know there is no such thing as a perfect body, while at the same time comparing themselves to others and orienting themselves towards thinness ideals.
• Acknowledge that concerns about the body and appearance begin early.
• Listen to children, for example when they say they do not want to shower after Physical Education. What is really going on?