Positive Body Image Among Children

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Body functionality refers to everything that the body can do. Body functions broadly fall into six domains, including (1) physical capacities (e.g., stretching), (2) internal processes (e.g., digesting food), (3) bodily senses and sensations (e.g., seeing), (4) creative activities (e.g., drawing), (5) communication with others (e.g., via body language), and (6) self-care and daily routine (e.g., sleeping).

In recent years, body functionality has increasingly been researched in the field of body image. This research shows that it is not necessarily what your body can do that is important, but rather being able to feel grateful for the things your body can do. This concept is called functionality appreciation and is defined as appreciating, respecting, and honoring the body for what it can do.

Mounting research shows that functionality appreciation is associated with—and may likely cause—higher levels of health and well-being (e.g., self-esteem and adaptive eating behaviors) and lower levels of ill-being (e.g., depression and eating disorder symptoms). In addition, evidence-based interventions are now available that can help people increase their levels of functionality appreciation and overall positive body image.

The research on functionality appreciation is promising. Yet, to date, this research has focused on adults. In a recent study, researchers from the University of the West of England (UK) and Maastricht University (The Netherlands) investigated functionality appreciation among young children. In particular, their study aimed to gain an understanding of how young children conceptualize their body functionality and whether this was associated with their age and gender and with their overall levels of positive body image.

The Research Design

The study involved 381 children between 4 and 6 years old living in Birmingham or London (UK). Each child took part in an individual interview with a member of the research team.

First, to assess how the children thought about their body functionality, they were asked, “Tell me all the amazing things you can do with your body.” The research team later analyzed the number of unique functions they named and the domains (e.g., bodily senses and creative activities) that their answers reflected.

Next, to assess children’s overall levels of positive body image, they were asked, “Do you love your body?” and, “Do you think your body is amazing?” For these questions, children could answer “yes” or “no.” If they answered “yes,” they were asked to stand on one of three circles on the floor, with the smallest circle representing “a little bit” and the largest circle representing “a lot.” The researchers scored the answers from 1 = no to 4 = a lot, with higher scores reflecting higher levels of overall positive body image.

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The Key Findings

Children’s descriptions of their body functionality could also be categorized into the same six domains based on the research among adults. However, the researchers also identified a seventh domain in children’s responses, which reflected cognitive abilities. Example responses include “reading words at school,” “doing detective work,” and “doing all sorts of maths.”

Most of the children (85 percent) described body functions pertaining to physical capacities, such as “cartwheel,” “climbing a rock,” and “sliding down poles.” The next most commonly described domain was creative endeavors (46 percent), including responses such as “playing Spiderman, “being like a cat,” and “making a picture.”

The next three domains—self-care and daily routine (e.g., “relax on the sofa”), communicating with others (e.g., “hug Mummy and Daddy”), and bodily senses and sensations (e.g., “tongue tastes things”)—were mentioned by approximately 25 to 30 percent of children.

The final two themes—internal processes (e.g., “go to the toilet”) and cognitive abilities (e.g., “think of things and make the right decisions”)—were mentioned relatively less often (10 percent).

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Interestingly, there were no gender differences in the total number of body functions listed or in the number of domains their answers covered. However, there were significant differences by age, with older children giving more responses that also spanned more domains.

Last, the analyses showed that children who described their body functions using more domains also reported higher levels of overall positive body image.

The Take-Home Messages

Understanding how young children describe what they appreciate about what their bodies can do—their functionality appreciation—is an important step in understanding children’s positive body image.

Like the research among adults, this study showed that children tend to appreciate six domains of body functionality. In addition, their answers reflected a seventh domain: cognitive abilities. This may reflect their unique developmental stage, where they are rapidly expanding their abilities. It also raises an interesting philosophical question for future research: To what extent do we view the mind and body as separate vs. one holistic entity?

Another unique characteristic of the children’s data concerns the importance of play. For example, they described play both with respect to creative activities (e.g., “riding tigers”) and also with respect to communicating with others (e.g., “playing with my sister”). This underscores that play is important to children’s appreciation of functionality and their connection to others.

The fact that older children named more functions they appreciated, which covered more domains, could reflect that they learn more about the body and their abilities as they go through school and perhaps have greater ability and confidence in expressing this.

It is noteworthy that children who appreciated a higher number of functionality domains also reported higher positive body image. This relationship was even stronger than for the overall number of functions they named. This gives a clue for future research: To foster positive body image, it could be meaningful to help children appreciate the many different and valuable domains of their body functionality.

Pending future research, helping children appreciate their body’s different functions could be integrated into various age-appropriate activities in schools (e.g., painting or story time). In this respect, it will also be necessary to determine whether these findings are replicated (e.g., in longitudinal study designs to establish causality), including children in other countries.