Obesity is a major public health problem in the United States, especially for African-American women. Adolescence is a critical period for the development of obesity in black females. There is evidence that the social environment surrounding female weight status differs between blacks and whites. Most experts believe that obesity results from an interaction of genetics and environment. In order to prevent the development of obesity in black females during adolescence, attitudes concerning body size and the social and cultural meanings attached to weight must be better understood. The purpose of this study was to compare attitudes toward body size between black and white middle school-aged girls.

The study took place in 3 middle schools in North Carolina. 379 girls participated, 216 blacks and 155 whites. Subjects responded to questionnaires which contained 9 figures arranged sequentially from very underweight to very overweight across the top of the page. There were 20 items that asked them to chose the one figure that best represented a positive attribute; including attractiveness, popularity, strength, power, influence, happiness, and respect. There were 5 items that assessed perceived social norms, including which body size friends, boys, mother, family, and doctor would most want the subject to be. The subject was also asked to select which body size looked the most like them and which they most wanted to look like.

For the attribute items, blacks chose a larger body size than whites for 15 of the 20 attributes (75%). For all the social norm items blacks chose larger body sizes. Blacks chose a larger body as the one they most wanted to be. There was no racial difference in which body size subjects felt looked the most like themselves. These results suggest that the attitudes of black adolescent girls may make them more vulnerable to the development of obesity.