adolescent body image

Helping Helping Adolescents Adolescents

DevelopDevelopA Positive Body A Positive Body

ImageImageOh Yeah…Oh Yeah…

Body Image … Exactly what is it ?

I give up!

Got to get PUMPED up!

A girl can never be too thin !

Gonna dance till Idon’t jiggle like jello!

I’ve got the LOOK !

Students in school begin to establish an individual

identity outside the family unit. This can often begin to be influenced by unrealistic

media influences.

The increasing attention & intimacy of peers amplify physical differences that

become evident as bodies change and develop.

Physical appearance becomes a major factor in

peer & opposite sex relations

Physical Development+

Body Image=

Development of Identityfor our adolescents

As adults, how can we help promote the development of a

positive & healthy body image?

We need to be aware of risk &

protective factors

Risk Factors

•Gender•Low self-esteem•Timing of maturation•Disordered eating

Protective Factors•Healthy self-esteem•Positive feelings about physical changes in puberty•Accurate information about about body image•Healthy eating & exercise

Body dissatisfaction

is the single strongest predictor of

eating disorder symptomology for adolescents

Body image is not based on fact. It’s psychological in nature, and much more influenced by self-esteem than by actual physical attractiveness as judged by others.

Body image is not inborn …

Body image is LEARNED

Body Image Questionnaire How well do you measure up ??

Let’s find out …

Body Image Questionnaire

1. I am constantly thinking about my body size, shape and weight, and I’m always working to improve it.

2. I would be much happier and my life would be better if I were thinner or more muscular.

3. I commonly skip meals to lose weight.

4. I weigh myself at least once a day.

5. I know or want to know how many calories are in the foods I eat.

6. I workout mainly to lose weight or to look better.

7. I completely exclude foods from one or more food groups to manage my weight.

8. I don’t participate in sports or other activities because I’m embarrassed about my body.

9. I like to wear oversized clothes to hide “flaws” in my appearance.

10. When I see a model in a magazine or on TV, I want to look like him or her.

How Did You Do?

If you answered “YES” to …

3

or more questions …you may have a negativebody image

From where does our learning of negative body image come?

The Big 3

ParentsPeers

The Media

The Media

We’ve just seen the myths,

now let’s see the facts!

The AVERAGE American female is 5’ 4” tall and weighs 140 lbs

The AVERAGE American model is 5’ 11” and weighs 117 lbs

The men & women on magazine covers

represent about

0.03%

of the population

• Girls are generally more influenced by body image, with 28% to 55% wanting thinner bodies compared to 17% to 30% of boys

• At age 10-11 years, 80% of girls are convinced they should be thinner

• Over 33% of adolescent girls report aggressive weight control measures such as chronic dieting, excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, and abuse of laxative, diet aids, and water pills

• 17.8% of 11-14 year old girls have gone on diets in the past 6 months

The

#1 wish for girls ages 11-17

is to be thinner

The Diet Industry is a

$40 Billion per year

business in the United States

Cosmetic Surgery

is the fastest growing medical specialty in the United States

About 1 million American males

have tried steroids at least once to improve their physique.

Up to 6% have taken

them by the age of

18 years

Parents

Our kids pay more more attention to us than we think!

“On a diet, you can’t eat”

Response of a 5 year old in a study on girls’ ideas about dieting

Many things parents do can trigger concerns about weight or appearance for their children

Having parents

concerned about

their own

weight or

appearance

Having parents who are overly concerned about their kids’ looks and weight

Having parents who are obsessive about exercise

Having parents who push their kids to exercise or participate on sports teams even if the kids don’t have an interest in doing so or don’t enjoy it

Having parents who focus on “outer” qualities rather than “inner” qualities

Peers

Being an adolescent is tough …

• Teased by peers for being too fat, too weak, too soft• If you don’t play sports you’re a wimp or a geek• You have to measure up … perfection!

Where does a negative body image take us?

Dying to fit in …

Dying to be thin …

Body obsession

can lead to

extreme dieting

and

exercise

Over one person’s lifetime

at least

50,000 individuals

will DIE as a result of an

eating disorder

How do we help our kids make peace with their bodies and their body

image?

• Help kids better understand how their bodies are not the same as everyone else's. • Listen to what your kids say & discourage “put-downs” about their appearance

•Reassure your children that you accept them “as is” … be careful how you suggest changes in dress, hair style, etc.

• Encourage physical activities such as biking, walking, or roller-blading that enable kids to experience the physical strength of their bodies & the positive feeling of movement regardless of body shape or size

• Wearing favorite clothes or getting a new haircut often allow kids to feel comfortable with themselves

• Introduce kids to relaxation techniques which may help them become less sensitive to events that cause negative body feelings

• 50% of girls report using magazines for ideas about weight control … work with your school’s library to ensure that appropriate & healthy guides exist for nutrition and exercise

• Peer mentoring may be helpful to address body image & changes associated with puberty, with older students as role models.

Finally ...

We can’t exchange our bodies for new ones. So the best thing is to find peace with the one you have. Your body is where you’re going to be living for the rest of your life!

BEAUTY PERSONIFIED

•SIZE ZERO

Are they really beautiful?

•Aristotle called beauty the ‘gift of god’.

•Beauty is no longer god’s domain. It now rests in the hands of surgeons or cosmetologists. Like instant food, beauty treatments have also become instant.

The Beauty Myth

• This issue is for women who believe their hair is boring, their skin is flawed, their body is shaped funny, or their clothes are outdated.

• This is for women who believe their life would improve if they could lose 15 pounds; if they could afford contact lenses, that new perfume or anti-cellulite concoction; if they got a nose job, a face lift, a tummy tuck, etc.

• This is for women who feel shameful or are unhappy when they look at themselves. In other words, this is for 99.9% of the women reading this and this is also for the men who care about their mothers, sisters and daughters.

SURVIVAL OF THE THINNESTSIZE-ZERO• Size 0 is a women's clothing

size in the US catalog sizes system, believed to be equivalent to a UK size 4 or a Europe size 32-34. It is also a concept within the fashion media relating to models with low body mass.

• Madrid Fashion Week 2006 prohibited models with a Body Mass Index below 18 — classified as unhealthy by the World Health Organization

• In fact, the average catwalk model has a BMI of just 16.

• Under such a ruling British supermodel Kate Moss would not be able to take part.

‘KILLER’ LOOKS

• The use of spindly models sets unrealistic standards of beauty that encourage young people to crash-diet at the expense of their health.

• "When the knee joint is wider than the thigh, it can be scary."

• Each year 150,000 American women die of anorexia. It is estimated that one woman student in five is anorexic.

• Holy grail of "beauty“- The Beauty Myth preaches that normal, round, healthy women's bodies are too fat; that women lacking the "perfect" face aren't attractive; that a woman over 30 who shows signs of life on her face is ugly.

Weight Obsession and fear of Aging

• Adult women of diverse ages ranked weight loss far above all other goals in their lives. Dropping an elusive few pounds was specifically more important than family, personal relationships and career.

• Her calorie-conscious goal is to appear more youthful than her birth certificate as she gamely tries to extend her shelf life with various forms of self-punishing strategies and over-priced cosmetics.

CULTURAL FACTORS

• Our culture teaches women they can't be happy unless they are "beautiful"

• We forget that "beauty pornography" we may call it, pictures underweight models that are usually between 15-20 years old.

• We never see a picture of a woman who is not wearing makeup applied by an artist, hair professionally coiffed, clothes professionally designed or chosen. Any natural flaws or wrinkles in her skin are airbrushed out. Unsightly lumps or anomalies in her body are also airbrushed out.

• If you don't look as gaunt as the fashion models, then you should starve or exercise to get that way.

• If you have lines on your face, you should have them cut or burned off.

• If your thighs are round, have a doctor stick a vacuum cleaner under your skin and suck the fat out .

• If you don't look perfect, there must be something wrong with your willpower, because if you really wanted to you could.

THE FASHION INDUSTRY• Because I’m worth it.-

L’Oreal slogan• It’s what makes you a

woman, it’s a source of female power. Paloma Picasso, Fashion Designer, when asked about lipstick.

• Resolution Number 1: ‘I won’t leave the house without make-up’. From a ‘resolutions’ article in Superdrug’s ‘Spirit’ magazine Februaury 2001

• Maybe she’s born with it. Maybe it’s Maybelline. - Maybelline slogan

MEDIA GLARE• Every time you turn on the

television or flip through a magazine you are reminded of how society prefers to see women: beautiful and thin.

• Models make up less than 1% of the population. Yet the way the media portrays them, you would think the majority of women are drop-dead gorgeous and wear a size 0.

• Not to mention that almost all magazines air-brush their models. Some models in ads are not even real people, but are computer-generated images.

FEMALE LIBERATION• There is a relationship

between female liberation and female beauty

• Women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty

• More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how women about themselves physically, they are actually worse than their unliberated grandmothers.

• How many folks have succumbed to the idea of the ugly feminist activist who is only a feminist because she's too undesirable to get a man?

CONCLUSION• We need to become much

more aware of how prevalent and damaging this kind of influence is on the women, it is very insidious--so much so that we accept it's pronouncements without a thought.

• You will soon be able to take a pill and, in 20 to 25 minutes, a non-synthetic substance will color your lips. Five years from now, you will be able to put a drop in your eyes to change their color

• Clearly, to be and stay beautiful has always been made to be the ultimate goal for a woman.

• The trouble is that till there is an organized way to challenge the beauty phenomenon, things will not change.

• Polite, submissive, innocent are some of the traits that make women feminine.

• Sadly, millions of mascaraed eyes are still trapped in these 'social blind spots' .

• The numbers stated earlier are startling, and they tell us we need to do a better job of helping our daughters feel better about themselves and avoid unhealthy weight control behaviors.

• The whole beauty myth goes hand-in-hand with self-esteem. The bottom line is being happy with yourself.

• It is about believing that you really are an attractive, desirable woman who has a lot to offer.

• That means you can look in a magazine, see Claudia Schiffer, and think she is very pretty. And then being able to say to yourself, you know what, I look pretty damn good too!

• Personality is what ultimately attracts, and what you have inside is what truly matters!

• Either every being is perfect, or no one is, because no two of us on the planet are exactly alike, including identical twins.

• Each of us is a marvelous minority of one. • Character of spirit, far more vital than form or

features, shines though like a beacon when we get out of our socially correct roles and dress.

• It only makes sense to accept, even love unconditionally the fragile, miraculous, mobile, custom-designed, self-healing, energy-converting, systems-regulating, environment-sensing, consciousness-carrying container of one's life, however uniquely shaped, scarred and different it may be.

Is this real beauty???

• It’s midsummer, and the air is thick with the smell of fake tan. The honey-limbed lovelies are out on the razzle in a blur of high heels, faux-Vuitton handbags, and hoicked-up bosoms. They flick their highlighted hair hither, thither, and rat-a-tat-tat their false nails on the counter, trying to catch the barman’s eye.

How about a woman's joyful smile lighting up her face with the thought that finally, she is pregnant?

•This is beauty!!

How about children seeing snow for the first time, ever?

•This is beauty!!

How about snowcapped mountains at sunset to a skier?

•This is beauty!!

How about the waterfall in the lap of nature?

• This is beauty!!

How about dew on a prized rose at first morning light to a gardener?

• This is beauty!!

How about the eyes filled with tears of the woman you just asked to marry, again after 25 years?

• This is beauty!!

What about the innocent eyes of a child?

• This is beauty!!

• What about love?

BEAUTY PERSONIFIED!!