This paper aimed to evaluate body satisfaction in a group of adolescents and the possible differences between sexes; 121 teenagers of both sexes, enrolled in a private high school in ABC Paulista, were studied. Collective and individual interviews were conducted and data base was analyzed through the descriptive analysis and the statements of the Collective Subject Discourse technique, based on the social representation theory. Girls evinced the idealization of the skinny body and the speeches rolled to the wish of decrease and increase body areas. Among boys it was observed the idealization of eutrophic body, as well as the wishes to reduce body's areas and increase muscle size The central body satisfaction ideas were verified in 1.8% and 23.3% of speeches among girls and boys, respectively. Data confirm that body dissatisfaction is present in the adolescent's reality, with variation connected with the probable mechanisms and reactions connected with gender.
Body dissatisfaction; body image; adolescence; social representation; qualitative research
