title: Swedish 18-year-olds' identity formation: associations with feelings about appearance and internalization of body ideals.
abstract: The aim of this study with Swedish 18-year-olds (N = 714, 55.2% women) was to investigate identity formation in relation to body-esteem and body ideal internalization. These are all important aspects of adolescents' development, but little is known about how they are related. This study indicates that late adolescents' identity formation, body-esteem, and body ideal internalizations are related. Women's interpersonal identity commitments and explorations were related to more positive thoughts about how others evaluate their appearance. Their interpersonal identity explorations were also related to more internalization of societal body ideals. For men, stronger interpersonal identity commitments were related to more positive own evaluations about their appearance. The results also showed that compared to men, women explored identity issues more, had poorer body-esteem, and had internalized body ideals more.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Box 500, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. maria.wangqvist@psy.gu.se
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wängqvist
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frisén
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001828:Body Image; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012933:Social Identification; D013548:Sweden