Socioculturally constructed prescriptions for femininity and female sexuality define attractiveness and desirability of a woman as contingent upon her appearance and, especially, upon a thin body shape and low body weight (Hesse-Biber, 1996). In Western cultures, such standards for femininity are pervasively reflected and reinforced through the mass media with relentless images of idealized female physiques that have become progressively leaner over the past few decades (Botta, 1999; Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002).

Given that the cultural ideal for female beauty has implications for one's attractiveness to the other sex, girls often believe that success in heterosexual dating is dependent upon their body shape. Studies have documented a strong association between girls' interest in heterosocial popularity and their concern with appearance and weight (Lieberman, Gauvin, Bukowski, & White, 2001; Simmons & Blyth, 1987). As adolescent girls mature, they become more aware of their bodies in terms of sexual attractiveness and attribute greater importance to their attractiveness than do boys. Consequently, girls experience greater concern about physical features that symbolize sexual attractiveness than do boys (Davies & Furnham, 1986).

The importance of physical appearance appears to be especially salient for early adolescents as heterosocial involvement forms. Younger adolescents appear to have different reasons for dating than do older adolescents; they give more weight to a potential dating partner's superficial features (e.g., looks, fashionable clothing) and approval by others than do older adolescents (Roscoe, Diana, & Brooks, 1987). Maccoby (1998, p. 212) wrote that "Adolescent girls are perfectly aware of the importance of physical attractiveness in the eyes of the other sex, and many become intensely preoccupied with their hairdos, their complexions, their clothes, and especially with controlling their weight."

In addition, having a boyfriend, or even pursuing a romantic interest, in middle school enhances girls' popularity with peers. Girls consider being in love to be socially desirable because it is a way to prove their popularity with boys and, accordingly, improve their popularity status among their female peers at an age when being popular is especially important to their self-esteem (Simon, Elder, & Evans, 1992). If being popular is contingent upon having a boyfriend, and having a boyfriend is contingent upon attractiveness, early adolescent girls, as they begin to interact with boys, may increase the importance of thinness and attractiveness for self-worth at a time when their bodies are growing proportionally larger as a consequence of puberty.

Previous research indicates that early dating and the inclusion of boys in the peer group are related to body image disturbance. Simmons and Blyth (1987) suggested that there is a strong relation between girls' interest in the other sex, their popularity, and their concern with weight and appearance. In a middle-school sample, girls who had started to date in the past year were found to engage in more weight management than did girls who had not yet started to date (Levine, Smolak, Moodey, & Shuman, 1994).

Similarly, Cauffman and Steinberg (1996) found that cross-sex involvement predicted higher scores on an assessment of eating-disordered behavior in a community sample of 12-13-year-old girls. One of their important findings was an interaction between dating and menarcheal status in the prediction of eating-disordered behavior, which indicates that the effect of heterosocial dating on eating disturbance is moderated by the experience of menarche (Cauffman & Steinberg, 1996).

Not all girls who date or who experience increased contact with boys, however, develop body image disturbance. The cognitions and beliefs that girls hold about themselves and dating may be an important factor in the way girls experience their bodies. Understanding not only early adolescent girls' behavior in relationships with the other sex, but also how the rules of such behavior, or scripts, are defined during early adolescence may elucidate how cross-sex relationships influence adolescent girls' concerns about weight and physical appearance.

Social scripts are socioculturally defined cognitive models, or schemas, that individuals use to organize their experiences in the social domain and to form expectations and evaluations pertaining to social interactions (Ginsburg, 1988). According to Simon and Gagnon's (1986) sexual script theory, traditional gender roles for dating are typically acquired during childhood and adolescence (Simon & Gagnon, 1986). Gender role violations have implications for interpersonal evaluations. For example, women who eat smaller meals are perceived more positively than are women who eat larger meals (Basow & Kobrynowicz, 1993). Similarly, a woman is judged as more culpable for a rape if she deviates from her gender role by initiating physical contact on a date (Muehlenhard & MacNaughton, 1988).