Half of preschool girls worry about fat

ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Nearly half of 3- to 6-year-old girls say they worry about being fat and one-third would change a physical attribute like hair color, U.S. researchers say.

University of Central Florida psychology Professor Stacey Tantleff-Dunn and doctoral student Sharon Hayes say 31 percent of the 121 girls surveyed indicated they almost always worry about being fat, while another 18 percent said they sometimes worry about about being fat.

However, unlike older girls and women who were affected by short-term exposure to thin, beautiful models on television and in the movies, the researchers found watching a movie starring a thin, beautiful princess did not appear to increase the preschool girls' anxieties about being fat.

Study leader Stacey Tantleff-Dunn says young girls who worry about their body image are more likely to suffer from eating disorders when they are older.

While the study found no short-term consequences of being exposed to a stereotypically thin and beautiful princess for young girls, the media's portrayal of beauty likely is one of the strongest influences on how young girls perceive their bodies because children spend so much time watching movies and television, Tantleff-Dunn said.

The study is published in the Journal of Developmental Psychology.