Body weight representation in children's picturebooks

Abstract

The current study analyzed body-weight representation of characters in 50 children's picturebooks about body image. A repeated-measures ANOVA confirmed that average-weight characters were depicted significantly more often than thin and fat characters, both of which were depicted equally as often. There were four times as many average-weight characters as fat characters and nearly 11 times as many average-weight characters as thin characters in the picturebooks. Average-weight and fat characters were depicted significantly more often with positive traits compared to negative traits. Average-weight characters were depicted engaging with food and exercise more often than fat and thin characters. White children and girls were predominantly portrayed in the picturebooks. There appears to be a lack of diverse body-weight representation in the picturebooks analyzed, which leaves room for diversifying the representation of children of varied body weights across children's picturebooks.