• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.96-109
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• 2008

The proposes of this study were to exam the effects of internalization of sociocultural values toward appearance on adolescents' body image and clothing behaviors, and to analyze these effects by adolescents' sex and age variables. The research method was survey and the subjects were 447 male and female adolescents in Daejeon, Korea. The questionnaire consisted of 4 measuring instruments; internalization of sociocultural values toward appearance, body image, clothing behaviors, and demographic attributions. The data were analyzed by factor analysis, t-test, variance analysis, Duncan's multiple range test, using SPSS program. The results are as follows. First, most of adolescents showed positive attitude on sociocultural values toward appearance, and female and high school students revealed higher level of internalization than male and middle school students. Second, as a result of factor analysis, 3 factors emerged in body image(appearance interest, appearance evaluation, and weight concern) and 4 factors emerged in clothing behaviors(clothing interest & psychological dependency, clothing ostentation, clothing conformity, and clothing comfort). Third, internalization of sociocultural values toward appearance had important effects on adolescents' body image and clothing behaviors; the adolescents who had high level internalization showed more interest on their appearance and weight and higher clothing interest & psychological dependency and clothing ostentation and lower clothing comfort than other adolescents who had middle or low level internalization. Forth, internalization of sociocultural values toward appearance showed many different effects on body image and clothing behaviors by adolescents' sex and age variables.