Adolescents' body-tanning behaviours: influences of gender, body mass index, sociocultural attitudes towards appearance and body satisfaction

The goal of this study was to identify and examine the various factors affecting adolescents' body-tanning behaviours. Gender, body mass index (BMI), sociocultural attitudes towards appearance (SATA) and body satisfaction were examined in order to determine how these variables influence both outdoor sun-tanning and indoor tanning-bed use. Self-administered survey data were collected from 155 adolescent boys and 202 adolescent girls with an average age of 14.3. Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple regression methods were used to analyse the data. Adolescent girls tended to engage in both outdoor and indoor tanning. Overall, adolescents' SATA significantly affected their body-tanning behaviours. However, BMI and body satisfaction revealed a significant effect only on indoor tanning behaviour. Implications for the design of interventions and overall health promotion towards adolescents are discussed with suggestions for future research.