Table 3.
Prevalence of body image perception in adolescents by sex, age, and body mass index (BMI) in studied countries
| Sex | No. | No. (%) of respondents who reported being |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| too thin | about the right weight | too fat | P* | ||
| All BMI values:† | |||||
| Boys: | |||||
| 13-y-old: | 0.001 | ||||
| Lithuania | 616 | 95 (15.4) | 441 (71.6) | 80 (13.0) | |
| Croatia | 743 | 99 (13.3) | 479 (64.5) | 165 (22.2) | |
| United States | 782 | 116 (14.8) | 453 (57.9) | 213 (27.3) | |
| 15-y-old: | <0.001 | ||||
| Lithuania | 707 | 161 (22.8) | 489 (69.1) | 57 (8.1) | |
| Croatia | 591 | 111 (18.8) | 382 (64.6) | 98 (16.6) | |
| United States | 694 | 120 (17.3) | 373 (53.7) | 201 (29.0) | |
| Girls: | |||||
| 13-y-old: | 0.049 | ||||
| Lithuania | 716 | 79 (11.1) | 412 (57.5) | 225 (31.4) | |
| Croatia | 680 | 83 (12.2) | 397 (58.4) | 200 (29.4) | |
| United States | 889 | 91 (10.2) | 475 (53.4) | 32 (36.4) | |
| 15-y-old: | 0.003 | ||||
| Lithuania | 795 | 96 (12.0) | 375 (7.2) | 324 (40.8) | |
| Croatia | 796 | 104 (13.1) | 382 (48.0) | 310 (38.9) | |
| United States | 826 | 61 (7.4) | 406 (49.1) | 359 (43.5) | |
| BMI ≤15th percentile (underweight):† | |||||
| Boys: | |||||
| 13-y-old: | 0.549 | ||||
| Lithuania | 90 | 32 (35.6) | 55 (61.1) | 3 (3.3) | |
| Croatia | 111 | 41 (36.9) | 67 (60.4) | 3 (2.7) | |
| United States | 116 | 52 (44.8) | 59 (50.9) | 5 (4.3) | |
| 15-y-old: | 0.431 | ||||
| Lithuania | 99 | 44 (44.5) | 54 (54.5) | 1 (1.0) | |
| Croatia | 86 | 44 (51.2) | 41 (47.7) | 1 (1.1) | |
| United States | 108 | 55 (50.9) | 49 (45.4) | 4 (3.7) | |
| Girls: | |||||
| 13-y-old: | 0.713 | ||||
| Lithuania | 106 | 43 (40.6) | 56 (52.8) | 7 (6.6) | |
| Croatia | 105 | 48 (45.7) | 49 (46.7) | 8 (7.6) | |
| United States | 130 | 49 (37.7) | 73 (56.2) | 8 (6.1) | |
| 15-y-old: | 0.001 | ||||
| Lithuania | 112 | 48 (42.9) | 59 (52.7) | 5 (4.4) | |
| Croatia | 119 | 60 (50.4) | 52 (43.7) | 7 (5.9) | |
| United States | 125 | 33 (26.4) | 77 (61.6) | 15 (12.0) | |
| BMI ≥85th percentile (overweight):† | |||||
| Boys: | |||||
| 13-y-old: | <0.001 | ||||
| Lithuania | 96 | 6 (6.3) | 46 (47.9) | 44 (45.8) | |
| Croatia | 111 | 2 (1.8) | 36 (32.4) | 73 (65.8) | |
| United States | 116 | 1 (0.9) | 30 (25.9) | 85 (73.2) | |
| 15-y-old: | <0.001 | ||||
| Lithuania | 103 | 7 (6.8) | 75 (72.8) | 21 (20.4) | |
| Croatia | 89 | 2 (2.3) | 31 (34.8) | 56 (62.9) | |
| United States | 107 | 1 (0.9) | 18 (16.9) | 88 (82.2) | |
| Girls: | |||||
| 13-y-old: | 0.053 | ||||
| Lithuania | 105 | 0 (0) | 28 (26.7) | 77 (73.3) | |
| Croatia | 103 | 2 (1.9) | 27 (26.3) | 74 (71.8) | |
| United States | 132 | 1 (0.8) | 29 (22.0) | 102 (77.2) | |
| 15-y-old: | 0.093 | ||||
| Lithuania | 118 | 0 (0) | 22 (18.6) | 96 (81.4) | |
| Croatia | 121 | 2 (1.7) | 12 (9.9) | 107 (88.4) | |
| United States | 120 | 0 (0) | 21 (17.5) | 99 (82.5) | |
*χ2 test for comparison of adolescent body image perception across countries.
†BMI data were categorized into percentiles within sex and age group in each country sample separately.