Early Adolescent Physical Attractiveness and Academic Competence

Abstract

Using data from the Pennsylvania Early Adolescent Transitions Study (PEATS), a short-term longitudinal study of northwestern Pennsylvania adolescents undergoing the transition from elementary to junior high school, physical attractiveness (PA) and objective and subjective measures of academic competence were interrelated in order to test two alternative models: The direct effects model stresses intraorganism, noncontextually mediated links, while the developmental contextual model emphasizes social interactional processes between students and teachers. In support of the developmental contextual notion, the results of LISREL analyses across three times of testing during the sixth grade indicated that significant paths existed between PA and initial teachers' ratings of students' academic competence; in turn, these ratings were related to end-of-year grade point averages and to scores on a standardized achievement test. These findings are discussed in regard to alternative ways to model the role of social interactions in PA -academic competence relations and to the possible role of PA in early adolescent stress and coping.