This study examined the perceived role of three types of sociocultural agents (peers, parents, and media) in influencing body dissatisfaction and food restriction in adolescent girls. Participants were 577 Grade 10 girls from six schools who completed classroom questionnaires and had their height and weight measured. Two path analyzes produced a similar pattern. While current body size was strongly predictive of ideal body size and body dissatisfaction, the perceived influence of multiple sociocultural agents regarding thinness also had a direct relationship with body ideal and dissatisfaction. Dietary restriction was directly predicted by body dissatisfaction and sociocultural influences. Peers, parents, and media differed in their perceived influence. The findings support the idea that those girls who exhibit greater body dissatisfaction and dietary restrictions live in a subculture that upholds a thin ideal and encourages dieting. Body concerns and/or dietary behaviors are reported by many adolescent girls (Paxton et al, 1991; Wadden, Forster, Stunkard, & Linowitz, 1989 Wertheim, Paxton, Maude, Gibbons, Szmulker, & Hillier, 1992; Although body concerns may lead to healthy food choices and exercise in some girls, many others diet despite already being at a healthy weight or report using unhealthy methods such as fasting or vomiting (Paxton et al., 1991; Wadden et al., 1989; Wertheim et al., 1992). These latter behaviors are of concern since longitudinal studies suggest that diet in adolescence is a risk factor for the development of eating disorder symptoms (Killen et al., 1994; Leon, Fulkerson, Perry, & Early-Zaid, 1995; Patton, Johnson-Sabine, Wood, Mann and Wakeling, 1990). Most theories on diet, body image, and eating disorders assign an important role to sociocultural factors (Levine & Smolak, 1992; Stice, 1994), such as the media. There has been a trend in the media, for several decades, towards a smaller ideal female body size, despite the increase in the actual body size of young women (O'Dea, 1995). These findings have led to the idea that body dissatisfaction arises from the discrepancy between a woman's actual body size and an ideal size that is heavily influenced by images in the media. Indeed, older girls (those furthest from media ideals) report greater dieting and body dissatisfaction, and even many normal-weight girls diet and report being dissatisfied (Huon, 1994; Patton et al., 1990; Paxton et al., 1991; Wadden et al..