Physical appearance during the transition into adolescence matters for youths’ socioemotional development. This study explored these implications by adding visual data to the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,049) to test how others’ ratings of youths’ looks (1 = very unattractive to 5 = very attractive) at the beginning (grade 3) and end (grade 9) of this transition shaped their emotional well-being, popularity/likability, and dating/sexual behavior. Results revealed recency effects of grade 9 looks on popularity/likability and dating/sexual behaviors and a lingering amplification effect of grade 3 looks on popularity/likability at the start of high school. Few associations were evident for emotional well-being. Thus, physical appearance offers an important lens for studying adolescent development.

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从童年中期到青春期早期外貌的发展意义

青春期过渡期间的外貌对青少年的社会情感发展很重要。本研究通过将视觉数据添加到 NICHD 早期儿童保育和青少年发展研究 ( n = 1,049) 来测试其他人在这个转变开始（3 年级）和结束（9 年级）时对年轻人外貌的评价（1 = 非常没有吸引力到 5 = 非常有吸引力）如何影响他们的情绪健康、受欢迎程度/受欢​​迎程度, 和约会/性行为。结果显示，9 年级外表对受欢迎程度/好感度和约会/性行为的近因效应，以及 3 年级外表在高中开始时对受欢迎程度/好感度的挥之不去的放大效应。很少有明显的关联与情绪健康有关。因此，外貌为研究青少年发展提供了一个重要的视角。