Do young women feel more pressure to stay thin from the media or peer pressure?
I located a study done by Christopher J. Ferguson and colleagues from Texas A & M International University in the U.S. They were studying what was a greater influence on teenager girl’s outlook on their body image. The researchers asked 237 young Hispanic girls, aged 10 to 17 years, to name their 3 favorite television shows and to rate the attractiveness of the female actresses in those shows. They also assessed their body weight and height, whether or not they had feelings of inferiority in response to other girls (peer competition), Six months later, and the researchers repeated these measures in 101 teen girls from the initial group. Overall, neither television
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Many teenagers struggle with increasing waistlines. In an effort to understand how teenagers feel about their body image,StageofLife.com, asked young adults to participate in its national teen body image survey and “Be the Change” writing …show more content…
Also, 19,500 laser skin resurfacing procedures, 5,500 chemical peels, and 3,000 dermabrasions were performed.
• Gynecomastia, male breast reduction, accounted for 17 percent of cosmetic surgical procedures for patients age 13-19 in 2010, totaling 13,500 procedures.
(Witmer, 2014)
In the natural order of things 91 percent of women are unhappy with their bodies and
resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. Unfortunately, only 5 percent of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media.
To summarize the article went to say today's models generally weight 23% less than the average woman. Considering the average person in the United States sees approximately 3,000 ads in magazines, billboards, and television every day, your teenager is getting the wrong message about body image much too often.
Media emphasizing the ideal of thinness as beauty When you stop and think about the fact that the average height and weight for a model is 5'10" and 110 lbs, and the height and weight for the average woman is 5'4" and 145 lbs; it is easy to see why girls want to be like models. In conclusion, teenagers start the idea of weight and image at a young age by peer
Harrison, K., & Hefner, V. (2006). Media exposure, current and future body ideals, and disordered eating among preadolescent girls: A longitudinal panel study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(2), 146-156.
The study conducted was conducted to measure the risk adolescents during the development of their body image and eating disturbances. A 3-point Likert scale was used among the one hundred and ninety six participants ranging from ages 8 years and 8 months to 11 years and 10 months. Two pilot studies were conducted in this study, to adjust the scales for the adolescent participants in a clear concise way for them to understand, and to be sure student participants were not fatigued from a plentiful survey. Cronbach’s alpha was used to test the reliability of the three subscales. The results indicated there was a significant difference in body dissatisfaction and media influence between the two genders in the study. The females in the study indicated there was a significant difference between body awareness and body dissatisfaction, while males had no significant difference. Both groups however indicated there was a correlation between the pressure of the media influencing body dissatisfaction. The discussion indicated there should be a larger sample of participants as well as specifically measuring the influence of media on clinical symptoms.
Research shows “that regular readers of fashion and beauty magazines in early adolescence are more likely to suffer from a distorted body image during their teenage years” (“Children, Adolescents and the Media”), when they read beauty magazines they read articles and tips of how to look better and they try to them all to look and feel better about themselves. Research shows that “more than three-quarters of girls repot that television influenced their body image” (Mascarelli). Social media influences how we act and what we do Amanda Swartz once stated “Social media and mass media influence the way we react and interact with our world and potentially influence the perception of our own body image” (Mulliniks). In today’s worlds there are more ways to access websites to promote body image as a positive thing, “On the internet, there are now more than 100 pro anorexia websites that not only encourage disordered eating but offer specific advice on purging, severely restricting calories intake, and exercising excessively” (“Children, Adolescents and the Media”). It’s not a bad thing to eat healthy and work out to be fit and healthy but it’s another thing to eat less and work out excessively. Teens always compare themselves to others, either their peers, models and celebrities, “People are on Facebook or Instagram and they’re constantly comparing themselves to other people” (Mulliniks). Also reality television shows, show only the glamorous about what is happening, like “when teen moms become celebrities, the message to avoid teen pregnancy is lost” (Kroll). When teens watch shows like Teen Mom they don’t see the entire negative about becoming pregnant as a teen they see that the teen mom got famous and is on the show. Social media, media, magazines, and TV give teen’s unrealistical facts about body image, pregnancy and
Researchers have used various abstract foundations for examining the relationship between media and body image ( Holmstrom, 2004). Here I review the theory that has been used by researcher in the area. Bandura’s Social cognitive theory (1994) assumed that “people learn and model the behaviors of attractive others”. The supporters of this theory suggest that young women find slim models in the media attractive and try to imitate them through dieting which leads them to eating disorders.
Picture the world controlled by the media. Could you imagine how ugly, scarce, and hateful it would be. What would you do if a magazine or a television show told you that your body weight had to be twenty pounds lighter to be all most perfect? Would you actually consider the fact or let ignore it? Teens, mainly girls, will be sucked into these magazines. (National Eating Disorders Info Centre 15) These could be magazines like Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. In addition with many others of course. All though, the media is a bad example at times it is not precisely the main issue for negative body image. (National Eating Disorders Association 1) All though, these constant screaming messages the media produces can progress to something more serious. (National Eating Disorders Association 1) More serious as in an eating disorder.
As Grogan (1999) explains, one’s estimation of his or her appearance referred to as body image. Body dissatisfaction develops when negative judgments about one’s physical body contradict the ideal perception of the perfect body (Szymanski & Cash, 1995; Grogan, 1999). Having issues with body image and dissatisfaction during the most critical developmental period may place adolescents at a high risk of developing eating disorders. The effect of social media on body image and eating behaviors can be explained by a number of theories. The sociocultural theory, which is described by Thompson, Heinberg, & Tantleff-dunn (1999), can provide a structure to better understand the phenomenon of body dissatisfaction along with eating disorders. This theory
The study will be investigating women’s pressure to be thin, as the dependent variable, and media pressure, socio-cultural influence, aging-related alarm in relation to appearance, perfectionism, body dissatisfaction, and stress and depression, as the independent variables. The surveys will be designed with open-ended questions to encourage the participants to provide full and meaningful responses concerning the research topic.
Levine, Michael P., and Sarah K. Murnen. "Everybody Knows That Mass Media Are/Are Not [Pick One] A Cause Of Eating Disorders": A Critical Review Of Evidence For A Causal Link Between Media, Negative Body Image, And Disordered Eating In Females." Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology 28.1 (2009): 9-42. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
The ongoing battle we face with our bodies can be brutal, but with teenagers growing into their new bodies they are more susceptible to a negative body image. With technology booming, and internet being easily accessible the youth is very much involved in social media such as Facebook to be in interaction with their friends and classmates. “The findings also showed that more time spent on Facebook was associated with more negative feelings and more comparisons to the bodies of friends. They also found that for women who want to lose weight, more time on Facebook led to more attention being paid to physical appearance. This included attention to one's body and clothing.” (Increased time on Facebook…body images). Although it might see...
It has been said time and time again that media heavily influences the desastisfied body image, may women and girls enconter. Previous studies have shown how over expouser to the hyper-sexualized ads and images in the media lead to a distortion of body image in women and girls. However, there is yet another factor that influences the decline of body image just as much. Peer competition has been shown to contribute to this decline as well. Peer competition is any rivarly for supermacy amongst those of the same age group or social group. A recent study shows that women’s body dissatisfaction is influenced by peer competition with other rather than depictions of women in the media. Muñoz and Ferguson, (2012) developed a study in order to further understand the influence of inter-peer pressure in body dissatisfaction.
Andrist, Linda C. "Media Images, Body Dissatisfaction, and Disordered Eating in Adolescent Women." Adolescent Health Mar. 2003, 28th ed., sec. 2: 119-23. Print.
Individuals have different ways in how they perceive body image. According to Smith cited in O’dea (1995, P. 56) claims: models of Rubens, Rembrandt, Gaugin ...
Tiggeman, Marika. Miller, Jessica. “The Internet and Adolescent Girls' Weight Satisfaction and Drive for Thinness.” Sex Roles 63. 1-2 (Jul 2010): 79-90. ProQuest. Web. 12/24/2013
The pattern is similar for the portrayal of women on television, magazines, and other parts of the media. The way media represents women are for them to be thin-like models and other women on television to be the high standard of “attractiveness” to others. The advertising involved targets young teenage women and feature these models that are portraying desirable items, and the “norm” is for these women to be slender and beautiful (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012). Research has been done to prove that media’s pressure on being thin causes women to be depressive and negative feelings about themselves . Women’s view are skewed and perceived incorrectly of what the typical female body should be (Haas, Pawlow, Pettibone & Segrist, 2012).
. Romo, Samantha. "As Body Image Issues Grow in Society Be Aware of Medias Influence." The Crimson White 7 Mar. 2012: n. pag. Print.