Raising Girls in a Modern World
About this Study
Sample
There has been widespread concern about girls
“growing up too quickly” as indicated by an explosion of popular books on this topic as well as by a
number of government reports both here in Australia and overseas. However, there has been very
little research done on this topic. In this study, we
aimed to gain parental perspectives on this issue,
by asking parents to report on behaviours they may
see in their daughters.
815 Australian mothers of
at least one daughter
aged between 4-10 years
old completed our online survey. The mothers
were aged between 22 and 53 years old (M=37.4
years). Most (86.4%) had at least one other child,
with the mean number of children being 2.3. The
sample mainly identified as Caucasian/White
(94.2%).
CHILD BEHAVIOURS
We were interested in obtaining a picture of girls’ behaviours, including some ‘grown up’ behaviours.
Parents were asked to rate the frequency with which their daughter engaged in each behaviour (‘never’,
‘rarely’, ‘sometimes’, ‘often’, ‘always’). The table below presents some of the behaviours and the
percentage of girls who engaged in the behaviours at least ‘sometimes’. The table displays the percentages for all girls as well as for girls in three age groups: 4-5 years, 6-7 years, and 8-10 years.
Activities
Likes to read or be read to
Likes playing sport or physical activity
Likes art and craft activities
Likes to dance
Likes to play ‘dress ups’
‘Teen Culture’
Listens to pop music
Interested in having the latest ‘stuff’
Interested in fashion/what clothes are ‘in’
Watches music videos
Is interested in celebrities (e.g., Miley Cyrus)
Talks about boys in romantic terms
Reads magazines like Total Girl, Dolly
Beauty Products
Wears nail polish
Wears lip gloss
Wears shoes with heels
Wears makeup
Curls or straightens hair
Attention to Clothes
Enjoys shopping for clothes
Is particular/’fussy’ about what she wears
Wears a lot of pink clothes
All Girls
(n=815)
4-5 years
Age groups
6-7 years
8-10 years
99.6%
94.8%
99.1%
95.8%
82.4%
100.0%
97.6%
99.7%
97.0%
94.9%
100.0%
92.8%
99.5%
96.2%
86.1%
98.9%
92.7%
98.1%
94.0%
63.4%
63.8%
36.5%
33.3%
29.8%
22.7%
14.9%
10.5%
45.9%
19.3%
14.5%
16.6%
5.3%
7.4%
1.8%
66.2%
45.0%
35.9%
35.1%
21.3%
15.9%
7.2%
84.9%
51.7%
54.9%
42.5%
46.2%
23.9%
24.2%
36.4%
30.8%
13.1%
10.2%
9.5%
33.9%
25.4%
12.2%
7.8%
5.1%
37.5%
30.4%
13.5%
10.6%
7.2%
38.7%
38.2%
13.8%
13.0%
16.9%
80.8%
73.5%
73.5%
78.3%
73.9%
92.2%
82.7%
70.9%
79.7%
82.3%
75.6%
44.9%
CHILD BEHAVIOURS (CONT.)
Across the whole sample, a sizeable number of girls engaged in beauty behaviours, including wearing lip
gloss (30.8%) or nail polish (36.4%).
Girls’ involvement in ‘teen culture’ increased with age. Just under a quarter of 8-10 year old girls (24.2%)
read ‘tween’ or ‘teen’ magazines like Total Girl or Dolly. Just under a half of 8-10 year old girls watched
music videos (42.5%) and showed an interest in celebrities like Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber (46.2%).
More than half of 8-10 year olds were interested in having the latest ‘stuff’ (51.7%), were interested in
fashion or what clothes are ‘in’ (54.9%), and most 8-19 year olds listened to pop music (84.9%).
APPEARANCE CONCERNS
We were also interested in girls’ appearance concerns. We asked mothers to report on the frequency
with which their daughter engaged in the following behaviours (again using ‘never’, ‘rarely’, ‘sometimes’,
‘often’, ‘always’). The following table presents the percentages of girls who engaged in each behaviour
at least ‘sometimes’ for all girls as well as for the three age groups.
All Girls
(n=815)
4-5 years
Age groups
6-7 years
8-10 years
Appears satisfied/comfortable with her body
97.2%
97.3%
99.5%
95.1%
Asks for feedback on her appearance
(e.g. “Do I look good in this?” “Do I look pretty?”)
55.2%
56.0%
52.4%
56.4%
Makes comments on her own appearance
58.0%
67.4%
54.5%
48.9%
Makes comments about the appearance of others
54.0%
51.6%
55.3%
56.0%
Expresses concern about her appearance
(e.g., “I don’t like my hair/nose/bottom”)
14.6%
4.7%
13.9%
27.8%
Examines/inspects her appearance in mirror
69.0%
62.4%
71.5%
75.5%
Expresses concern about how she looks in photographs
7.2%
2.4%
4.8%
15.1%
The overwhelming majority of girls (97.2%) were satisfied with their bodies. However, almost 15% of girls
expressed concern about her own appearance (almost 28% of 8-10 year olds), and 7.2% expressed
concern about how they look in photographs (15.1% of 8-10 year olds).
We also found some relationships between these behaviours. The more girls engaged in ‘teen
culture’ (like watching music videos, or displaying an interest in celebrities), the more they used beauty
products and the more interest in clothes they had, the more likely they were to have some concern with
their appearance. It should be remembered, though, that all of these behaviours increased with age.
SUMMARY & IMPLICATIONS
Happily, the majority of girls like reading and physical
activity and were satisfied with their appearance.
However, a considerable number of girls were involved in
behaviours that may be thought of as ‘grown up’, like
wearing lip gloss, nail polish, watching music videos,
displaying a romantic interest in boys, and expressing
concern about fashion and what clothes are ‘in’. These behaviours were somewhat associated with appearance concern.
Parents can try to take steps to encourage age-appropriate
activities for their daughters and to minimise their exposure
to appearance-focused or highly sexualised media.
This research was conducted by Dr Amy Slater and Professor Marika Tiggemann of the School of
Psychology, Flinders University.
The research was approved by the Flinders University Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee .
We sincerely thank all the parents for participating in this study.