An Association Between Body Image Dissatisfaction and Digit Ratio Among Chinese Children and Adolescents

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2021 Mar 5

PMID 33664410

Citations 3

Authors

Yongting Yuan

Jingyao Hu

Lili Sun

Yifei Zhang

Bangxuan Wang

Rongying Yao

Hui Han

Lianguo Fu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Body image dissatisfaction (BID) is a negative evaluation of personal physical characteristics, including dissatisfaction with body shape, gender, sexual organs, appearance and so forth, and it plays an important role in growth and development. The second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is recognized as a putative indicator of intra-uterine testosterone to estrogen ratio exposure, and it has been observed that higher levels of fetal testosterone exposure are associated with a lower 2D:4D. The present paper contributes to a better understanding of the biological underpinnings of BID by analyzing BID and the digit ratio (2D:4D). We found that the 2D:4D was positively related to appearance dissatisfaction in boys with first spermatorrhea, which means that low prenatal androgen exposure may increase boys' dissatisfaction with their appearance. In girls with breast development being lower than Tanner stage II, their 2D:4D was negatively related to their body shape dissatisfaction, which means that high prenatal androgen exposure may increase girls' dissatisfaction with their body shape. These results suggest that the prenatal androgen exposure level might play an important role in the body image dissatisfaction of the offspring.

Citing Articles

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Association between body image dissatisfaction and body anthropometric indices among Chinese children and adolescents at different developmental stages.

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Body Image Dissatisfaction and Aggressive Behavior Among Chinese Children at Different Pubdertal Stages: A Path Analysis.

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