ESTHETICS AND EARLY CHILDHOOD: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL EMPIRICAL STUDIES¹

ABSTRACT

The notions of esthetics and beauty are built as of early childhood and permeated by racial and gender issues. By this assumption, this systematic review aimed to analyze empirical articles of international circulation reviewed by peers, published between 2009 and 2020, which are able to articulate the esthetics and early childhood themes. Studies whose titles contained the descriptors ‘Vanity’, ‘Appearance’, ‘Esthetic’ and ‘Self esteem’, combined separately with the descriptors ‘Infancy’, ‘Childhood’, and ‘Children’ were selected. The search was carried out in the following databases: Capes Periodicals, Web of Science, PubMed and Scielo; and followed the methodological recommendations by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses [PRISMA]. A total of 12 studies composed the final corpus of this systematic review. The results indicated that esthetic issues are part of children’s lives and can have a positive or negative impact in their development, depending on how they are handled. The discussion helps to problematize the phenomenon in a better way.

Keywords:
Early childhood; systematic review; esthetics

RESUMO

As noções de estética e de beleza são construídas desde a primeira infância e atravessadas por questões raciais e de gênero. A partir disso, esta revisão sistemática buscou analisar artigos empíricos de circulação internacional revisados por pares, publicados entre 2009 e 2020, que articulassem a temática estética e primeira infância. Foram selecionados estudos que continham, nos títulos, os descritores: Vanity, Appearance, Esthetic e Self esteem, combinados separadamente com os descritores Infancy; Childhood e Children. A busca foi realizada nas bases de dados Periódicos CAPES, Web of Science, PubMed e Scielo e seguiu as recomendações metodológicas do Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses [PRISMA]. Um total de 12 estudos compôs o corpus final desta revisão sistemática. Os resultados indicaram que questões estéticas fazem parte da vida das crianças e podem causar impactos positivos ou negativos em seu desenvolvimento, a depender da forma como são conduzidas. A discussão contribui para problematizar melhor o fenômeno.

Palavras-chave:
Primeira infância; revisão sistemática; estética

RESUMEN

Las nociones de estética y de belleza son construidas desde la primera infancia y atravesadas por cuestiones raciales y de género. Así, esta revisión sistemática buscó analizar artículos empíricos revisados por pares de circulación internacional, publicados entre 2009 y 2020, que articulasen la temática estética y primera infancia. Fueron seleccionados estudios que contenían, en los títulos, los descriptores: Vanity, Appearance, Esthetic y Self esteem, combinados separadamente con los descriptores Infancy; Childhood y Children. La búsqueda fue realizada en las bases de datos Periódicos CAPES, Web of Science, PubMed y Scielo y siguió las recomendaciones metodológicas del Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses [PRISMA]. Un total de 12 estudios componen el corpus final de esta revisión sistemática. Los resultados indicaron que cuestiones estéticas son parte de la vida de los niños y pueden causar impactos positivos o negativos en su desarrollo, dependiendo de la forma como son conducidas. La discusión contribuye para problematizar mejor el fenómeno.

Palabras clave:
Primera infancia; revisión sistemática; estética

Introduction

Social skills, linguistic-cognitive abilities, and physical and emotional health are developed from the earliest years of life and are important for human development in all social areas (Venâncio, 2020). According to the United Nations Children’s Fund - UNICEF (2011), this first period of life, which extends from birth to six years of age, corresponds to early childhood and is fundamental for development in subsequent years.

In early childhood, one area that is rarely discussed is that of aesthetics, physical appearance, and vanity. Throughout history, aesthetics has occupied a relevant place in human societies. This concept is linked to shared cultural principles of beauty, which determine criteria for appreciating what is considered beautiful, emphasizing its qualities (Moreira et al., 2023). From this perspective, Mello et al. (2020) highlight that aesthetics reveals an emphasis on habits that demonstrate care for physical appearance, as an expression of self-determination, self-knowledge, freedom, and social inclusion, providing increased self-esteem, satisfaction, confidence, social well-being, psychological well-being, happiness, and freedom. However, according to the authors, aesthetics, about physical appearance, is intrinsically linked to feelings, thoughts, and perceptions arising from lived experiences and sociocultural influence. Physical appearance, in turn, is often considered a major facilitator of acceptance in certain social groups (Santos & Silva, 2021), and a good appearance is conceived as an effective means of social and family integration (Mello et al., 2020).

The concept of vanity refers to a positive concern with beauty and the body, and is related to aesthetic care and the individual’s involvement with beauty, representing self-care. Thus, vanity constitutes an antecedent of appearance and is linked to the level of body self-esteem and the frequency of care and involvement with beauty. Therefore, vanity leads individuals to perceive themselves as more beautiful, stimulating the pursuit of improvement (Strehlau et al., 2015).

In this field of study, discussing self-esteem and self-image can also contribute to understanding the topic, since both constructs, unlike those of aesthetics and vanity, are more investigated during childhood, despite being distinct concepts. The concept of self-esteem refers to the self-valuation that each individual performs on themselves in different events or situations in life, based on intrinsic properties of a being, such as values, beliefs, and attitudes determined by them as negative or positive (Schultheisz & Aprile, 2013). Thus, the concept of self-esteem is linked to the development of self-awareness, develops in conjunction with more stable aspects of personality (Hair & Graziano, 2003), and includes an evaluation of one’s own personality, skills, characteristics, qualities, and place among people. A good level of self-esteem serves as an important motivational force, since people with high levels of self-esteem show greater confidence and security in themselves (Albuquerque et al., 2022). It is important to emphasize that an individual’s self-esteem can vary as they face successive challenges throughout their development (Huang, 2010).

Self-image, in turn, is extremely relevant to overall health and is related to self-acceptance. A person who has distorted perceptions of their own image or dissatisfaction with their body shape usually presents depressive symptoms, anxiety, and somatic complaints (Justino et al., 2020).

It is clear, therefore, that aesthetics, vanity, self-esteem, and self-image, despite being different constructs, are interrelated and need to be addressed in relation to social constructions of gender and race. According to Campos (2017), gender and aesthetics are interconnected. The author states that, from a very young age, children are directed towards the type of clothing, behaviors, and toys that are assigned to them according to their gender. Boys are offered cars, balls, and games that encourage exploration of the outside world. However, girls are taught to play house, to always be well-groomed, and to be delicate. In this sense, Garbarino (2021) comments that girls experience the imposition of being beautiful and that, from this, the children themselves demarcate differences and reinforce the segregation between girls and boys, reinforcing a stereotypical division in which beauty is attributed to girls and physical strength to boys. Such divisions, in turn, interfere with how each child feels they belong to the group.

Furthermore, racial issues can also interfere with children’s vanity, aesthetics, self-esteem, or self-image from early childhood, because, as Ziersch et al. (2011) point out, when racism is experienced regularly, it has a negative impact on the individual’s health, well-being, and self-esteem. Thus, racism in childhood fosters identity conflicts, recurring feelings of inferiority (Schoolz et al., 2014), low self-esteem, socio-emotional difficulties, and depressive and anxiety symptoms (Heard-Garris et al., 2018). Therefore, these issues raise further questions about the constructs discussed here, since, according to UNICEF (2010), racism causes negative impacts at the psychological and social levels and interferes with the full development of children.

Given the above, this study aimed to analyze how the theme of aesthetics and early childhood is being articulated in international empirical articles, through a systematic review. To this end, other constructs such as vanity, self-esteem, and appearance were used to broaden the possibilities for discussing and analyzing the gaps and considerations presented in the analyzed studies.

Method

This was a systematic review study that used literature on a specific topic as its data source, resulting in a summary of evidence associated with a strategy, through systematized search methods (Sampaio & Mancini, 2007).

The study considered the PICOS strategy, which, according to Santos and Galvão (2014), is an English acronym (where P refers to Population/participants; I to Intervention; C to Comparison/Control; O to Outcomes; and S to Study Types) and favors better retrieval of results since it allows searches to become clearer and more efficient. However, as the present research involves articles that used different methodologies to address the researched topic, this strategy was used with adaptations, since the application of PICOS is limited when the study analyzes qualitative research and involves a diversity of variables (Oldenburg et al., 2020).

Furthermore, this research followed the guidelines recommended by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses [PRISMA] (Page et al., 2021) and was registered with the International Prospective Register of Ongoing Systematic Reviews [PROSPERO] (2015) database, under numberCRD42021288112.

Search strategies

The articles were searched in the following databases: PubMed, CAPES Journals, SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online), and Web of Science. The databases were searched by identifying the Federated Academic Community (CAFe), which facilitates access to both open-access and restricted-access articles. For this purpose, studies whose titles contained the following combination of descriptors were selected: Self-esteem and Childhood; Vanity and Childhood; Appearance and Childhood; Esthetic and Childhood; Self-esteem and Infancy; Vanity and Infancy; Appearance and Infancy; Esthetic and Infancy; Self-esteem and Children; Vanity and Children; Appearance and Children; Esthetic and Children. These combinations were made using the Boolean operator and, which, through the search terms, relates the researched subjects.

The search strategy based on titles was employed because it allows for more specific filtering of the research topic, given the broad nature of the constructs. Furthermore, the research was not restricted to any specific language, and the analyzed articles were published between 2009 and 2020. The search and study selection processes took place from November 2020 to February 2021.

Eligibility criteria

The following inclusion criteria were established: studies that covered early childhood from zero to six years of age; peer-reviewed articles that covered the established year range; articles that were published in any country or language; and empirical articles that used primary data.

Conversely, the exclusion criteria were: articles that were not peer-reviewed; duplicate or unlocated articles; studies that did not meet the format of a scientific article; articles that did not correspond to empirical research and that used secondary data; and articles that addressed atypical development.

Selection of studies

Regarding the selection of articles, two researchers classified them according to the inclusion criteria independently. A third reviewer oversaw this process. If the first two researchers disagreed, the third reviewer would read the article, and the three researchers would decide on the study's eligibility by consensus.

Data extraction

After this step, the following data were extracted from the articles: author, year, location, participants, type of analysis (qualitative or quantitative), journal area, instruments used in data collection, objectives, and results.

Risk of bias

In order to assess the risk of bias and select the best quality studies, for qualitative studies, the Appendix H Quality appraisal checklist - qualitative studies, from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence [NICE] (2012), was used, and for quantitative studies, the Quality assessment tool for quantitative studies from the Effective Public Health Practice Project [EPHPP] (1998) was used. For mixed studies, both qualitative and quantitative, both scales were used.

Results and discussion

According to the established search strategies, 1,421 studies were found in the searched databases. After applying the exclusion and inclusion criteria, 12 studies comprised the final corpus of this systematic review, as shown in Figure 1.

In order to conduct a critical and comprehensive analysis of the 12 articles included in this systematic review, some structuring information and characteristics of the articles were extracted, as exemplified in Chart 1.

The 12 articles that comprised the final corpus of the research were divided into qualitative studies (six: articles 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10), quantitative studies (four: articles 3, 6, 11, 12), and mixed studies (two: articles 2, 5). The six qualitative studies and the two qualitative/quantitative studies were analyzed using the NICE (2012) critical tool, including theoretical approaches, study design, data collection, study reliability, data analysis, and their overall evaluation.

Figure 1
Search and selection of studies.

Chart 1
Characteristics of the included studies.

In this context, two studies were classified as good (articles 1, 2); five were reasonably good (articles 4, 5, 7, 8, 9), and only one did not meet the specified requirements and was classified as poor (article 10). Regarding the least met criteria, the following stand out: the researcher’s role was not clearly described (articles 4, 5, 7, 8), the unreliability of the methods (articles 4, 8, 10), the imprecision of the information regarding the reporting of research ethics (articles 4, 5, 9), the imprecision in the analysis and collection of data (article 2), and the lack of clarity in the theoretical approach (article 10).

The four quantitative articles and the two classified as quantitative and qualitative were analyzed according to the criteria established in the evaluation tool for quantitative studies of the EPHPP (1998). To this end, the criteria analyzed were basically based on selection bias, study design, possible confounding variables, blindness to outcome assessors, data collection method, and withdrawals and drops in participation numbers. All aimed at indicating the quality of the articles. From this perspective, two studies were classified as strong (articles 11, 12) because they met all the criteria established in the evaluation tool; three were classified as moderate (articles 3, 5, 6), since they partially met the established criteria; and one was classified as weak (article 2). Among the least addressed criteria, the lack of information regarding participant withdrawals and drops in the studies (articles 2, 3, 5, 6) and the lack of information regarding the control of co-founders among participants before the research interventions (study 2) stand out. Therefore, in general, the studies in this research were positively evaluated, since only two were classified as weak, highlighting the quality of the articles. Based on this, the low risk of bias in the studies was verified, which demonstrates their methodological quality.

In this perspective, Barbosa et al. (2019) emphasize the importance of analyzing the risk of bias in the included studies, as it increases the reliability of the results of a systematic review. However, in this review, risk of bias analysis was used as a guiding principle for the quality of the studies and included all articles, including those with a high risk of bias, in the final corpus of the research. This action aims to promote a broader understanding of the topic that makes up the systematic review.

Regarding the period in which the analyzed articles were published, the range was from 2009 to 2020. The year 2016 had the most publications on the topic, with four studies. The other years did not present or had only one article on the topic. In the years 2011, 2013, and 2018, there were no publications, and 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020 presented one article each.

Among the studies dated between 2009 and 2020, they did not present a linearity in temporal terms. According to Miller et al. (2009), constructs such as appearance and all its assumptions receive little attention in the literature. This statement is accentuated more notably when these constructs are problematized among early childhood children. Although 2016 presented a significant number of studies, out of the eleven years analyzed, eight only presented one study, and four did not present any studies on the topic. These facts show that this topic is not widely researched in the age group analyzed, which points to the importance of addressing it during early childhood.

Regarding the analysis of the authorship of the articles, a diversity of authors was observed; however, Maria Hatzigianni and Kay Margetts published two co-authored articles on the topic (articles 1, 2), in which they sought to understand the possible relationship between self-esteem and computer use. These studies were conducted in Australia and published in 2010 and 2012, which shows a similarity between their production.

May Ling Halim also participated in the production of two articles (9, 12), one discussing rigidity in children’s appearance, and the other dealing with gender appearance in relation to cultural comparisons. Both studies were produced in the United States: the first in 2014, and the second, which also had Chinese participation, in 2020. Despite the reduced number of studies on this topic, it is possible to find authors who dedicate themselves more systematically to the subject.

Regarding the areas of the journals that published on the topic, two had more participation: Psychology (4, 6, 8, 7, 9, 12) and Education (1, 2, 3, 5), with six and four articles, respectively. In addition to these, the areas of Pediatric Dentistry (10) and Pediatrics (12) also contributed with one article each.

Among the studies analyzed, the area of Psychology was considered an important guiding axis for this topic. This fact can be understood in relation to the work of this area, since Psychology addresses social beliefs and expectations. The field of Education was another area that contributed to the analysis of this theme, which indicates that, recently, this area has broadened its discussions and its scope of research on current issues, especially when it comes to matters relating to childhood. Furthermore, the fact that the fields of Pediatrics and Pediatric Dentistry each present at least one study on the topic may indicate that this field is becoming a multidisciplinary area of interest.

Qualitative studies predominated, dealing exclusively with the participation of children, except for two (10, 7), which also included the participation of parents and other adults. In this perspective, Kauark et al. (2010) state that qualitative research considers a link between subjectivity and the subject’s world, which may justify the focus on the main actors in the research: the children.

Of the four quantitative studies, only one (article 3) did not focus on parents. Quantitative research deals with everything that can become objective. This may justify the predominance of parents and adults in quantitative research, due to the possible difficulty of listening to children using more structured and standardized instruments (Kauark et al., 2010). Regarding the studies that used both qualitative and quantitative methods, one study (article 2) focused on children, and another (article 5) focused on children, parents, and educators.

Six articles focused exclusively on children (1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9), while others had parents as participants in addition to the children - three articles (6, 10, 11) - and one article had only parents as participants (12). In addition, two articles (5, 7) had the participation of parents, children, and educators.

In most studies, children were the main participants or protagonists. According to Ramos and Barbato (2014), studies have long shown greater participation of adults talking about or for children. However, consideration of infant participation in research is currently increasing. The data extracted from this systematic review confirm this premise, showing a greater focus on children. Furthermore, figures who are part of the child’s social context, such as parents and educators, continue to participate in studies, which corroborates a broader understanding of this topic.

Regarding the location of the studies, most were carried out in the United States of America, which presented four articles (articles 4, 7, 9, 12). Next came Australia, with two (1 and 2). The remaining countries presented one study each: South Korea (article 3), Russia (article 5), Portugal (article 6), Germany (article 8), Israel (article 10), Brazil (article 11), and China (article 12), which dedicated the article, along with the USA.

Since most studies were developed in the United States, the interest in this topic can be attributed to sociocultural issues. Gutierrez et al. (2020) state that the USA has been dedicated to addressing issues such as the relationship between appearance and gender development. In addition, the results indicated that many regions did not present any studies on the topic based on the inclusion criteria in the scope of the research, which reveals that this is still a field that is poorly explored, and therefore, little known by science.

Considering the data collection instruments, nine different types of instruments were used in the twelve studies, which were categorized in a non-exclusive way, since a single study may have used more than one. The instruments were as follows: questionnaire (2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11); interview (9, 2, 5, 6, 12); test (1, 4, 7, 2); observation (2, 6, 12); scale (3, 6); clinical examinations (10, 11); manual activities (8) and experiment (5). Nine studies used more than one instrument. This strategy serves to allow one data collection instrument to complement the other and promote an understanding of the phenomenon.

In relation to the research objectives, they were classified into four categories: 1) To analyze self-esteem in relation to external factors (articles 1, 2, 3, 6). 2) To analyze gender identity and preference, self-esteem, and rigidity in appearance (articles 4, 9, 12). 3) To investigate aesthetics in relation to dental trauma and quality of life (articles 10, 11). 4) To investigate the influence of physical appearance on imitative and social behavior (articles 7, 8).

In general, the articles analyzed addressed issues such as self-esteem, appearance, aesthetics, and gender in early childhood. In this sense, Müller and Hassen (2009) state that it is necessary to understand the phenomena that surround children today and give them a voice in social life and research. Thus, studies on childhood need to be discussed from the concepts present in society that permeate their bodies and their socialization processes.

Based on the four thematic axes created in the objectives, it was possible to relate them to the results obtained, which were organized into the same four categories:

1st category: Here are gathered the results regarding self-esteem and external factors and their correlations. However, these results showed differences between the studies. In three articles, self-esteem showed a significant increase when a school program enabled the use of technology (articles 1, 2) and psychopedagogical procedures were used (article 3). Another study concluded that parental relationships are a predictor of self-esteem (article 6). Furthermore, the fifth study revealed that a good level of self-esteem reduces problematic behavior, stimulates self-confidence, and influences positive reactions in real-life situations (article 3).

In this vein, Fedorenko and Bykova (2016) (article 5) state that self-esteem contributes to maintaining personality stability, regardless of changing situations. According to Hatzigianni and Margetts (2012, 2010) - (articles 1 and 2, respectively), the use of computers in early childhood brings benefits to self-esteem, stimulates reliability, and improves development. Pinto et al. (2015) (article 6) concluded that the quality of attachment to parents and social acceptance are strong predictors of increased self-esteem in children in early childhood. Furthermore, children with high self-esteem tend to develop self-confidence and high creativity (article 3) (Chi et al., 2016).

The results in this category focused on self-esteem and its variations according to experiences. This research aligns with Miranda (2007), who thinks it is necessary to broaden the possibilities of understanding the phenomena that direct the process of building self-esteem and the dimension of affect in children in learning situations.

2nd category: The results regarding self-esteem and its relationship with gender development showed that self-esteem exerts a strong impact on early gender development and that rigid gender appearance-related behavior can be observed in early childhood children from different backgrounds (articles 9, 4). Finally, a comparative study (12) showed that East Asian children presented less pronounced appearance rigidity than children from the United States, who presented strong appearance rigidity. These results indicate that this dimension of appearance rigidity is greatly influenced by the related cultural context.

Halim et al. (2014), (article 9), state that boys and girls, even during early childhood, demonstrate an interest in dressing according to social gender expectations linked to their biological sex. From the point of view of Cvencek et al. (2016), (article 4), from the age of five, children present their own gender identity, rigidity in the way they perceive their appearance, and already have self-esteem. Thus, children who have gender preferences consistent with their biological sex have a high level of self-esteem. Gutierrez et al. (2020), (article 12), who conducted a comparative study between children from the United States and Hong Kong, demonstrated that children from the USA showed more rigidity in appearance than those from Hong Kong, which denotes the sociocultural influence on children’s development.

In general, the results of this analysis indicated that issues such as vanity and appearance are present in children’s lives from an early age and may be related to gender. This finding aligns with Miller et al.’s (2009) assertion that appearance stereotypes, such as being well-groomed and beautiful, are more readily associated with girls in early childhood. The authors argue that these stereotypes cause children to respond more harshly to boys who violate gender-related appearance norms and to be more susceptible to social judgments. Therefore, Buss and Stoltz’s (2020) idea that the more embedded a person is in their culture, the more cultural beauty standards influence their practices must be considered.

3rd category: Studies referring to dental aesthetics and its relationship with quality of life and physical appearance diverged from each other. The first (article 10) showed that parents did not consider their children’s dental defects as aesthetic problems; however, the second (article 11) showed that aesthetic impairment, resulting from trauma, such as a fall, for example, negatively impacted the quality of life of the children and their parents.

In the study by Holan et al. (2009) (article 10), the children’s parents reported that, after tooth extraction procedures, for example, they did not show changes in behavior or socialization problems. However, the study by Gonçalves et al. (2017) (article 11) showed that aesthetic impairment has a negative impact on the lives of children and their families.

The results of this category, in part, indicated that quality of life may be related not only to oral health, in its biological and physical dimension, understood as an integrating part of human health, but also to its aesthetic dimension. According to Bastidas (2018), dental impairment can generate psychosocial problems associated with self-esteem and aesthetics.

4th category: The results concern the perception of physical appearance and its influence on imitative and social behavior. The results from the analysis of people from the same ethnic and social group showed that physical appearance and issues such as gender and race did not influence the imitative behavior of children (8). However, another study pointed out that physical appearance and facial features influenced prejudgmental social behavior. The results showed that children who are still in early childhood already define, for example, who would be trustworthy or not, based on appearance (7).

In this sense, social perceptions allow for a quick judgment of character to the detriment of physiognomy and facial features. According to Charlesworth et al. (2019) (article 7), these judgments begin to occur from the earliest years. In experiments, children in early childhood began to observe who could be trustworthy or who would perform competent behaviors, such as taking the best photos, based only on facial features. Nevertheless, Krieger et al. (2016) (article 8) state that issues of gender, race, age, or language do not influence imitative behaviors of children in early childhood.

In general, concepts involved in the development of beauty standards can influence judgment behavior. According to Buss and Stoltz (2020), school and family, the first instances of socialization for children, contribute to forming constructs used in judging appearance rather than facial features, such as notions of beautiful and ugly. Furthermore, according to the authors, the media is also present in the construction of these concepts.

These notions of aesthetics relate to how a group is represented socially, and Black people have historically been represented as different and inferior, which ends up influencing the constitution of a self-image based on subalternity (Abramowitz & Oliveira, 2012). Such representations are reinforced in childhood by different contexts, such as the school, which sometimes maintains a racialized structure that has negative effects on the construction of the identity and self-esteem of Black children (Moreira-Primo & França, 2020), and by children’s literature, which represents Black people as something negative and ends up distorting their image. Therefore, greater problematization and discussion between the theme and the socializing contexts, which also include media influences, is necessary.

Considering the results obtained here, racial issues were not addressed when directed at vanity and aesthetics in early childhood, and research such as that of Ziersch et al. (2011) points out that racism negatively impacts an individual’s self-esteem. Furthermore, the constructs investigated here were not related to possible differences between children from different social classes. Therefore, it is reiterated that childhood is produced at the intersection of social and biological aspects, that this is a hybrid process, and that, to understand it, more integration between the natural and social sciences is necessary (Müller & Hassen, 2009). In light of the above, the results, in general, showed that issues such as aesthetics, appearance, and vanity can affect children’s lives positively or negatively, depending on the situations and experiences they undergo.

Final considerations

Based on the results, it was possible to see that the number of empirical studies addressing this topic is still small, since only 12 articles comprised the final corpus of the research. Therefore, it is necessary to expand studies on this topic in early childhood, as it is during this period that the foundations for self-esteem, beauty standards, and the construction of the first notions of self-image are built and will impact all human development.

In general, the topic has been studied more within the field of Psychology, particularly in discussions of self-esteem and appearance, and has been researched more in the United States. The results gathered in this study showed that when notions of aesthetics, appearance, and vanity are directed at children, even in early childhood, they can directly affect their self-esteem, self-image, and quality of life. A careful look at how these aspects are developed in the first years of life is fundamental so that preventive work can be done, in order to avoid the suffering of children and future difficulties in accepting their own appearance in later stages.

This research presents relevant results; however, it has limitations. The constructs used for the database search were limited to the titles of the studies, which may have compromised a more comprehensive selection of research. In addition, there are other types of studies, such as theses and dissertations, that can be included in future studies.

Finally, few studies adopted a gender perspective, and there are no studies that address the topic considering issues related to race, nor analyses that consider socioeconomic differences in the age group studied. Moreover, no studies were identified that aim to show how the media can contribute to the construction of stereotyped notions of aesthetics. This shortage is a factor that can contribute to making the problem experienced in the first years of life invisible. Therefore, future studies should investigate these aspects. It is also worth emphasizing the importance of continuing to conduct research directed at the topic and adopting preventive interventions focused on the problem, so that aesthetic diversity can be experienced in a healthy way from the earliest age.

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• Data availability:
  The dataset supporting the results of this study is cited in the article itself.

Edited by

• 1
  Section editor: Fabíola Batista Gomes Fírbida

Data availability

The dataset supporting the results of this study is cited in the article itself.

Data citations

International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). (2015). University of York. http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  24 Aug 2026
• Date of issue
  2026

History

• Received
  02 July 2022
• Accepted
  13 Mar 2024