Body Image in Children and Adolescents Essay

Modern people live media-saturated lives, even children as young as 6 years old, have had some type of media exposure. Extensive exposure to media outlets can lead to body image issues. Body image is defined as, the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body (Smolak 2003). Body image is formed as people compare themselves to others. Because, people are exposed to countless media images; these images become the basis for such comparisons. These mental comparisons, have a strong influence on an individual’s personal perception of beauty. Media outlets create images and pressures about what our bodies should look like; however, sometimes these images have been manipulated, creating an unrealistic expectation of beauty. When an individual believes that their body is substandard, they can become depressed, suffer from low self-esteem, or develop eating disorders.

“Body image begins to form in grade school because that’s when children/people start comparing themselves to others,” said Dr. Gene Beresin, a child and adult psychiatrist and associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical. Body image is how a person perceives themselves, including their imagination, emotional, and physical sensations (The Media and Body Image, 1). Teens that suffer from negative body image let the bad thoughts shatter their self-esteem, the sense of how valuable they are as people (Maynard, 1). The lowered self-esteem may lead to depression, eating disorders, or mental disorders. Bryan Karazsia, the associate professor of psychology at the College of Wooster, said, “Body dissatisfaction is not linked with health. It’s linked with a lot of negative things like eating disorders, unhealthy exercise habits, low self-esteem, and depression.”

Body image by definition is an individual 's concept of his or her own body. It’s how they see themselves and think others see them as well. Everyone has a body image where it is good or bad but more and more we are seeing body image issues lead into disorders. Our body images are often influenced by the people we care about, people we aspire to be and people we want to impress. All too often the people we want to be are photoshopped, thin and “beautiful” and utterly unattainable. And the people we want to impress are the bullies that tell us we will never be good enough for them. I think stopping the problem of Body image issues needs to start at home when your children are young.

As girls begin to hit puberty, their bodies start to change. Their bodies will gain fat and move away from this ideal thin body image (Kerr 2010). In a study done by Clay, Vignoles and Dittmar they showed three groups of adolescent girls magazine images. Two groups viewed magazine covers with female models who were somewhere between underweight or a little below average weight, while the third group viewed magazine covers with inanimate objects. The researchers found that the first two groups resulted in a less likely report of body satisfaction and self-esteem than the third group (2005). This demonstrates that when adolescent girls are exposed to the media’s thinness they feel like their size and shape is not good enough.

Body image may be viewed as the way people see themselves and even imagine how they make look based off how they may feel about themselves. Yet it could also be viewed as the way other people see you. Body image, in medicine and psychology refers to a person 's emotional attitudes, beliefs and views of their own body (Positive and Negative Body Image). According to Positive and Negative Body Image, a negative body image develops when a person feels his or her body does not amount up to family, social, or media standards. Many people feel as if they don’t measure up to the belief of others. People who have accepted the way they look often feel good about their image and would be considered to have a positive body image. One’s appearance may not be measure up to how their family expects it to be or how it is perceived to be in the media, but once people learn accept and be proud of the way they look they’ll be better off in the long run. When a person is measured against the standards of the beauty seen frequently in the media and it doesn’t compare to how they feel about themselves it become discouraging. Having said that, long-lasting negative body image can affect both your mental and physical health which could lead to eating disorders down the road.

O'Dea, J. (2002). Can Body Image Education Programs Be Harmful to Adolescent Females? Eating Disorders, 10(1), 1-13.

Body image is an important topic for many children and teenagers. How a person feels about themselves greatly influences how happy they are and how they interact with others. While a child’s body image can be influenced

A study was done to explore the effects of short exposure to appearance-related media on young girls’ body image. Some writings/studies has suggested that girls at the age of 6 and older are experiencing problems with their body, or body dissatisfaction (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2005). Some researchers are even saying that girls as young as 5 are having problems with their body image. There is some evidence that suggests that young children are aware of being thin or the “thin ideal” that exists in today’s society. Researchers are focusing on the information underneath

You will try to protect them while allowing them to find their own way. The message adolescents receive from their parents about body image is very powerful. Positive body image is a big part of an adolescents` self-esteem. If children don’t like the way they look or are dissatisfied with their bodies, their self-esteem will suffer. How they see themselves can affect every aspect of their lives either negatively or positively. “A healthy body image in childhood can lay the foundation for good physical and mental health later in life. An unhealthy body image in childhood can have long-lasting consequences” (RCN). It affects their choices, both long-term and short-term. It can impact their ability to meet people and make friends. Most adolescents are confused or concerned about the changes going on in their body. Having a close relationship with their parent’s and being able to talk about how they feel can help them understand. Family life sometimes can have an influence on the child’s body image. The relationships that adolescents have with their peers, family, and members of their social group play an important role in their development and how they will view their body. Adolescents who have a good relationship with their parents are less likely to engage in risky behavior. If adolescents constantly hear their parents speak negatively about themselves, they could start thinking the same things about their bodies, but if the parent has a good body image for themselves, then the adolescent will have a better chance of feeling the same way about themselves. Adolescents will model the same actions they see from their parents. As parents, it is also important to encourage adolescents to take pride in their appearance, but also to emphasize the deeper qualities that matter more than just what is seen on the outside. As the adolescent begins to try different styles the parent can help with their self-esteem by

Over the years, body image has been evolving in the lives of many children and teenagers from what they’ve seen on television and in magazines. They believe slim is attractive so they began

Although different adolescents may view their body image differently, the way the adolescent views their body image may influence their school performance and their interaction with family members. Some adolescents may view their body as inadequate compared to what the media portrays as the perfect body. These perceptions may affect school performance because these adolescents may

The approach that was used to answer the above practice question was using three different search engines: Google Scholar, PsycINFO, and ProQuest. The search terms used to find sources included; body image, cognitive behavior therapy, CBT, adolescent female, effective, and treatment. Other search terms included eating disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, teenage female, and intervention. The criteria used to determine which sources would be reviewed were based on the availably of the full article, the year of publication could not be older than 2000, its abstract showing its relevance to the current study, and whether or not it was a peer reviewed scholarly article.

Teenagers negative body image can be caused by many factors and have many different outcomes. But, teenagers should be able to feel appreciative of themselves without being slammed by the fashion world. Would you like to feel like you have no control over the way you see yourself, because of the content you see on social media? There are many factors into why teenagers develop body dysmorphia. For examples, “These can include any of the following; family environment, ability or disability, and peer attitudes”. (Raising Children Association, 2006) This reasoning is a logical source that is medically proven by health professionals that work with Eating Disorders and Mentally Disabled patients. There are statistics to prove the accusations, “such as professional research that have be run by

Inner thoughts about body image can be perceived in many different ways starting off with children. Body image can either be negative or positive depending on how one chooses to look at themselves. If children choose to compare themselves with other people around them than they will always continue to hold a negative outlook on life both emotionally and physically until they feel that is acceptable for them to accept who they truly are. In order for children to maintain a positive body image they have to connect to their inner feelings and self to be able to trust that they can be just as good as anyone else as long as they start with themselves

A particularly disturbing fact is that research has demonstrated that children as young as five years of age are experiencing body image related anxiety. At the same time there has been a major increase in Internet websites that are devoted not only to