The present study focused on the sexy-clothing behavior of high school girls. Specifically, we examined whether high school girls wear sexy clothes to express their actual sexual self-concepts and achieve their ideal sexual self-concepts and whether parents and popular girls influence those behaviors. The results, obtained by applying structural equation modeling to analyze the data collected from 384 ninth-grade girls, imply that such girls wear sexy clothes to convey their actual sexual self-concepts and achieve their ideal sexual self-concepts. The girls’ perceptions of parents’ sexy-clothing approval and of popular girls’ sexy-clothing wearing behavior influence the high school girls’ sexy-clothing wearing behavior. Parents significantly influence high school girls’ tendencies to wear sexy clothes to express their actual sexual self-concepts. Popular girls’ sexy-clothing wearing behavior influences high school girls’ tendencies to wear sexy clothes to achieve their ideal sexual self-concepts. Implications of the findings are discussed.
ArmstrongE. A.HamiltonL.SweeneyB. (2006). Sexual assault on campus: A multilevel, integrative approach to party rape. Social Problems, 53(4), 483–499.
2.
BergerK. S. (2014). The developing person: Through the life span (9th ed.). Worth Publishers.
3.
BoonS. D.LomoreC. D. (2001). Admirer-celebrity relationships among young adults: Explaining perceptions of celebrity influence on identity. Human Communication Research, 27, 432–465.
4.
BorgersN.LeeuwE.HoxJ. (2000). Children as respondents in survey design. Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 66(1), 60–75.
5.
BoydD.BeeH. (2014). Lifespan development (7th ed.). Pearson Education.
6.
CarlsonB. D.DonavanD. T. (2008). Concerning the effect of athlete endorsements on brand and team-related intentions. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 17, 154–162.
7.
ChanK.TufteB.CappelloG.WilliamsR. (2011). Tween girls’ perception of gender roles and gender identities: A qualitative study. Young Consumers, 12(1), 66–81.
8.
Chen-YuJ. H.ChoS.KincadeD. (2016). Brand perception and brand repurchase intent in online apparel shopping: An examination of brand experience, image-congruity, brand affect and brand trust. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 7(1), 30–44.
9.
Chen-YuJ. H.SeockY. K. (2002). Adolescents’ clothing purchase motivations, information sources, and store selection criteria: A comparison of male/female and impulse/nonimpulsive shoppers. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 31(1), 50–77.
10.
ChoiS. M.RifonN. J. (2012). It is a match: The impact of congruence between celebrity image and consumer ideal self on endorsement effectiveness. Psychology and Marketing, 29(9), 639–650.
11.
CotteJ.WoodS. L. (2004). Families and innovative consumer behavior: A triadic analysis of sibling and parental influence. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(1), 78–86.
12.
DavisonK. K.BirchL. L. (2001). Weight status, parent reaction, and self-concept in five-year-old girls. Pediatrics January, 107(1), 46–53.
13.
DeVellisR. F. (2012). Scale development: Theory and applications. Sage.
14.
DimofteC. V.GoodsteinR. C.BrumbaughA. M. (2015). A social identity perspective on aspirational advertising: Implicit threats to collective self-esteem and strategies to overcome them. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 25(3), 416–430.
15.
EricksonM. K.SirgyM. J. (1992). Employed females’ clothing preference, self-image congruence, and career anchorage. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22(5), 408–422.
16.
EscalasJ. E.BettmanJ. R. (2003). You are what they eat: The influence of reference groups on consumers’ connections to brands. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13(3), 339–348.
17.
FestingerL. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140.
18.
GoodinS. M.DenburgA. V.MurnenS. K.SmolakL. (2011). “Putting on” sexiness: A content analysis of the presence of sexualising characteristics in girls’ clothing. Sex Roles, 65, 1–12.
19.
GoversP. C.SchoormansT. P. (2005). Product personality and its influence on consumer preference. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 22(4), 189–197.
20.
GraffK.MurnenS. K.SmolakL. (2012). Too sexualized to be taken seriously? Perceptions of a girl in childlike vs. sexualizing clothing. Sex Roles, 66(11–12), 764–775.
21.
GrammerK.RenningerL.FischerB. (2004). Disco clothing, female sexual motivation and relationship status: Is she dressed to impress?Journal of Sex Research, 41(1), 66–74.
22.
GrantI. J.StephenG. R. (2005). Buying behavior of “tweenage” girls and key societal communicating factors influencing their purchasing of fashion clothing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 9(4), 450–467.
23.
HairJ. F.BlackW. C.BabinB. J.AndersonR. E. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Pearson-Prentice Hall.
24.
HajoiesJ. H.BurtsD. C.DukesA.CloudR. (1993). Consumer socialization of preschoolers and kindergartners as related to clothing consumption. Psychology & Marketing, 10(2), 151–166.
25.
HanY. J.NunesJ. C.DrèzeX. (2010). Signaling status with luxury goods. Journal of Marketing, 74(4), 15–30.
26.
HoeppnerB.KellyJ.UrbanoskiK.SlaymakerV. (2011). Comparative utility of a single-item and multiple-item measure of self-efficacy in predicting relapse among young adults. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 41(3), 305–312.
27.
HollandEHaslamN. (2013). Worth the weight: The objectification of overweight versus thin targets. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37(4), 462–468.
28.
JohnsonK. K. P.LeeM. (2000). Effects of clothing and behavior on perceptions concerning an alleged date rape. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 28(3), 332–357.
29.
JohnsonK. K. P.WorkmanJ. (1992). Clothing and attributions concerning sexual harassment. Home Economics Research Journal, 21(2), 160–172.
30.
KaiserS. B. (2012). Fashion and cultural studies. Bloomsbury.
31.
KastanakisM. N.BalabanisG. (2012). Between the mass and the class: Antecedents of the “bandwagon” luxury consumption behavior. Journal of Business Research, 65, 1399–1407.
LennonS. J.JohnsonK. K. P.SchulzT. L. (1999). Forging linkages between dress and law in the U.S., Part I: Rape and sexual harassment. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 17(3), 144–156.
34.
LivingstonJ. A.TestaM.HoffmanJ. H.WindleM. (2010). Can parents prevent heavy episodic drinking by allowing teens to drink at home?Addictive Behaviors, 35, 1105–1112.
35.
LowesJ.TiggemannM. (2003). Body dissatisfaction, dieting awareness and the impact of parental influence in young children. British Journal of Health Psychology, 8(2), 135–147.
36.
MartinC. A.BushA. J. (2000). Do role models influence teenagers’ purchase intentions and behavior?Journal of Consumer Marketing, 17(5), 441–453.
37.
McCallumoreK.SparapaniE. F. (2010). The importance of the ninth grade on high school graduation rates and student success. Education Digest, 76(2), 60–64.
38.
MontemurroB.GillenM. M. (2013). How clothes make the woman immoral: Impressions given off by sexualized clothing. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 31(3), 167–181.
39.
MyersD. G. (2009). Social psychology (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
40.
OwensL.DuncanN. (2009). They might not like you but everyone knows you: Popularity among teenage girls. Journal of Student Wellbeing, 3(1), 14–39.
41.
PalanK. M. (2001). Gender identity in consumer behavior research: A literature review and research agenda. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 1(10), 1–31.
42.
ParsonsT. (1949). The social structure of the family. In AnshenR. (Ed.), The family: Its function and destiny (pp. 173–201). Harper.
Pernice-DucaF. M. (2010). An examination of family and social support networks as a function of ethnicity and gender: A descriptive study of youths from three ethnic reference groups. Journal of Youth Studies, 13(3), 391–402.
45.
PetrescuM. (2013). Marketing research using single-item indicators in structural equation models. Journal of Marketing Analysis, 1(2), 99–117.
46.
PiacentiniM. P.MailerG. (2004). Symbolic consumption in teenagers’ clothing choices. Journal of Consumer Behavior, 3(3), 251–262.
47.
ReynoldsS. E. (2017). Boobs out! A perspective on fashion, sexuality and equality. Art and Design Review, 5, 115–128.
48.
RichardsL. (1991). A theoretical analysis of nonverbal communication and victim selection for sexual assault. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 9(4), 55–64.
49.
RogersonP. A. (2001). Statistical methods for geography. Sage.
50.
RostoskyS. S.DekhtyarO.CuppP. K.AndermanE. M. (2008). Sexual self-concept and sexual self-efficacy in adolescents: A possible clue to promoting sexual health?The Journal of Sex Research, 45(3), 277–286.
51.
RysstM. (2010). “I am only ten years old”: Femininities, clothing-fashion codes and the intergenerational gap of interpretation of young girls’ clothes. Childhood, 17(1), 76–93.
SchumackerR. E.LomaxR. G. (2004). A beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
55.
SirgyM. J. (1982). Self-image product-image congruity and advertising strategy. Developments in Marketing Science, 5, 129–133.
56.
TarrantM. (2002). Adolescent peer groups and social identity. Social Development, 11(1), 110–123.
57.
van DoornJ.LemonK. N.MittalV.NaßS.PickD.PirnerP.VerhoefP. (2010). Customer engagement behavior: Theoretical foundations and research directions. Journal of Service Research, 13(3), 253–266.
58.
WicklundR. A.GollwitzerP. M. (1982). Symbolic self-completion. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
59.
WilkinsA. (2004). “So full of myself as a chick”: Goth women, sexual independence, and gender egalitarianism. Gender & Society, 18, 328–349.
ZentnerM.RenaudO. (2007). Origins of adolescents’ ideal self: An intergenerational perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(3), 557–574.
