The relation of physical appearance perfectionism with body dissatisfaction among school students 9–18 years of age

Abstract Physical appearance perfectionism is a domain-specific form of perfectionism comprising two components: worry about imperfection and hope for perfection (Yang & Stoeber, 2012). Previous studies found that physical appearance perfectionism is related to body dissatisfaction among university students, particularly the worry about imperfection component, but did not address the question of whether physical appearance perfectionism changes over school years and explains variance in body dissatisfaction above age and body mass index (BMI). The present study investigated the questions examining 914 school students 9–18 years of age. Physical appearance perfectionism increases over school years and it explained a significant additional variance in body dissatisfaction beyond age group and BMI. Some gender differences were identified and limitations and implications were discussed.