Exploring Uniformity in Diversity: A Comparative Study of Filipino Adolescents and Adults’ Perspectives on Body Image and Its Correlates

Darwin Don Mallo Dacles¹, Ivan Dulnuan Baguilat², Fe Yolanda Gatan Del Rosario³ and Kenneth Liwanin Maslang^3,

¹University Research Center, Saint Mary’s University, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines

²College of Advanced Education, Ifugao State University, Lamut, Ifugao, Philippines

³School of Graduate Studies, Saint Mary’s University, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines

Cite this paper:
Darwin Don Mallo Dacles, Ivan Dulnuan Baguilat, Fe Yolanda Gatan Del Rosario and Kenneth Liwanin Maslang. Exploring Uniformity in Diversity: A Comparative Study of Filipino Adolescents and Adults’ Perspectives on Body Image and Its Correlates. World Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities. 2021; 7(3):126-135. doi: 10.12691/wjssh-7-3-5

Abstract

For a long time, men and women have been bedazzled by their own image or self-concept, primarily because it has conversely been shaped by the demands of society. Adolescence is characterized by considerable changes in terms of physical, social, cognitive, and emotional development. For adults, they gain broader and tempered perspectives brought by some measures of maturity, better exposure to various influencing agents like media, family, peer and colleague and other socializing agents, and improved sense of identity. This study compared the adolescents and adults’ perspectives on body image to further understand the intricacies of body image as people go through domains of physical, emotional, cognitive and social maturity. Findings revealed that the adolescents considered self-aggrandizement as having modest influence on body image perspectives. However, body acceptance, physical contact, sex and sexuality and vitality greatly contributed to their perspectives on body image. The adolescents manifested great self-esteem and self-optimism but had moderate valuation of their self-outcome while the adults had displayed great valuation self-esteem, self-optimism and self-outcome. The adolescents and adults had similar ranking of factors that influence body image perspectives. Among adolescents in descending order, the top-three most influential factors on body image perspectives were: parents, peers, and sibling while adults considered the top-three influencing factors as: parents, siblings and peers. Therefore, home factors such as the influence of parents, siblings and peers remained to be rich fertile areas where perspectives on body image are formed.

Keywords:
adolescents and adults body image self-esteem self-optimism self-outcome

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