| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of the study was to determine i~ a group
of three-, four-, and five-year-old children exhibited the
stereotypes relating to the mesomorphic, endomorphic, and
ectomorphic body builds that have been found consistently
among older subjects. The older subjects judged the endo
morph and ectomorph to be less favorable than the mesomorph
and professed a desire to look like the mesomorph.
Children over an age span of 43.9 months to 64.7 months
were tested to determine if the stereotypes were present
and, if found to be present, to determine at what age they
appeared. All subjects were enrolled in a preschool:
seventy-five were in a University of North Carolina at
Greensboro center~ the remaining fifteen were in a local;
church-sponsored program.
An instrument was devised to judge the presence of the
stereotypes. A checklist of age-appropriate adjectives was
compiled, similar to checklists found in the literature
relating to identification of body build stereotypes. Also
included as a part of the instrument were stimulus drawings
of the three body builds--endomorph, ectomorph, and meso
morpho Children were asked to assign each item from the
adjective checklist to one of the three stimulus drawings.
Each subject was asked to select the body build that he
perceived himself to look like.
-{
A one-way chi-square analysis was used to determine if
anyone adjective was attributed more often to a particular
body build than to any other. A chi-square an~lysis was used
as well to determine if a larger number of subjects correctly
identified their own body builds than did not.
There appeared to be no support for all age groups for
the hypotheses that the endomorphic and ectomorphic body
builds would be assigned unfavorable adjectives, while the
mesomorphic body build would be assigned the more favorable
adjectives.
It was concluded that the three-, four-, and five-year
old children in this study did not- exhibit body build stereo
types consistent with the literature. The five-year-olds did
show some evidence of body build stereotypes but not to an
extent that would allow for the acceptance of the hypotheses.
A larger number of five-year-olds correctly identified their
own body builds, but again not enough to allow for acceptance
of the hypothesis. | en_US |
