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Body image and the effect on women
Body image effect on todays generation
The adolescent’s preoccupation with body image and the problems that arise
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High school girls have experienced the peer pressure of losing weight and becoming thin like those “cheerleader popular girls”. Several researchers have demonstrated the importance of friends, suggesting that the weight-related attributes and behavior among friendship groups may predict body image, dieting onset, chronic dieting, and eating disorder symptoms, even after controlling for various family, friends, and individual factors (Eisenburg, Neumark-Sztainer, Story and Perry, 2005, p. 1116). High school girls often feel isolated because of their weight and rely on their friends for advice. Some of those friends suggest dieting or other ways to reduce weight and those girls take it very seriously and develop eating disorders and unhealthy weight. However, eventually, these girls realize that becoming thin and losing weight is not as important as others make it out to be. These girls are often pressure indirectly to lose weight to “fit-in”, which cause growth developmental problems and causes a disturbance in brain development. Self-harm is another key component in high school students. Students often choose to self-harm because they are unable to handle stressful situations and rely on self-harm to release the stress that they have kept in all this time. The author of this study compared adolescent self -injuries with non-injuries and found that self-injuries showed higher physiological reactivity during a distressing task, a poorer ability to tolerate this distress, and deficits in several social problem-solving abilities (Nock and Mendes, 2008, p. 28). Students who are unable to handle the stress of high school rely on self-harm to make them feel better. This not only causes physical but also mental problems. In addition, s... ... middle of paper ... ...nts are involved in romantic relationships. According to Greca and Harrison (2005), by late adolescence, adolescents report greater closeness with romantic partners than with best friends, parents, and siblings (p. 49). Juniors and seniors in high school tend to share their feelings and problems to their romantic partner. Communicating with someone benefits the brain development positively because when one talks to others about their feeling, they do not keep it all bottled up which is unhealthy. However, when someone who is very close to their romantic partner goes through a break-up will keep their feeling to themselves and often end up doing things they will regret later, but this is not the case for everyone who goes through a bad break-up. It is important for students to communicate with someone whether it is a romantic partner, best friends, parents or siblings.
However, these views don’t take social process into consideration. Therefore, they organized a self-help group for bulimics and anorexics known as BANISH in order to determine what societal aspects cause these disorders. The author’s group consisted mostly of college age females which is significant because this is group primarily affected by these disorders. Interestingly, the backgrounds of the women in the BANISH group are strikingly similar in that they are excellent students, good children who have very close parental relationships, from “functional” families - all having been brought up with an emphasis on thin physical appearance. The authors also allude to the fact that in today’s society, slimness is considered attractive and most worthy, while being overweight is viewed as both morally and physically wrong. Society labels heavy people as “lazy, obscene, and unhealthy”. (244) It is noted that when members of the group lost weight, they reported feeling more accepted and
In Andre Dubus’ The Fat Girl, Louise is a young adolescent with detrimental eating habits and broken self-esteem. Her lack of self-confidence stems from her atrocious emotional habitat. Louise receives constant criticism from her mother regarding her weight. Her mother states “If you are fat the boys won’t like you.” That kind of ridicule being said by a mother to her 9 year old daughter creates an atmosphere of self-hatred and self-loathing. It is not only her familial environment that contributes so greatly to Louise’s destructive behavior. She has few friends and the one’s she does have agree she needs to change. The society in which she lives also is a contributing factor; the society is laden with stigmas positioned on appearance. That manner of daily ridicule only introverts Louise even more, causing her secretive, binge eating to deteriorate. In research conducted by Ursula Polli-Potts PhD, Links between Psychological Symptoms and Disordered Eating behaviors in Obese Youths, she explains the correlation between psychological, emotional factors and eating disorders in overweight adolescents. Potts states, “The association between binge eating symptoms and eating in response to feelings of distress and sadness with depression/anxiety symptoms corresponds with the results of other studies.” Potts and her colleagues took overweight adolescents and placed them into control and variable groups to ensure correct data. The outcome of their research was that there is a direct correlation with emotional binge eating and psychological factors. Although more extensive research needs to be implemented, Potts and associates were pleased with the results of the case studies.
First, some people harm themselves simply because they can. A friend of Callie’s, Amanda, cuts herself and said to Callie, “Listen, I don’t see how what I do is so different from people who get their tongues pierced. Or their lips. Or their ears, for Chrissakes. It’s my body” (McCormick 37). She doesn’t see the harm in hurting herself which is why teaching this book could tell teenagers that this isn’t the path to go down and that there are other alternatives. She thinks that this is normal and a way to cope with her problems on a day-to-day basis. Amanda is one of the 1,400 out of 100,000, and growing, people who admitted to self-injury (Kennedy). Secondly, some people self-injure to cope with their feelings and tensions. Callie explains to her therapist about her father’s job situation and said, “’Now he just sells to companies nearby.’ I don’t tell you [her therapist] about how it seems like all the companies nearby already have computers, that for a while he took people out hoping they’d become customers and that now he mostly just goes out. ‘He has to work a lot’” (McCormick 111). Callie explained how her fathers situation seemed to cause her a lot of stress and how she seemed worried for him. To add, “some reasons why teens self-injure include: release of tension and feeling overwhelmed” (Styer). This is a lesson that could be taught in
Kress, Victoria, Drouhard, Nicole. (2006). Students Who Self-Injure: School Counselor Ethical and Legal Considerations. Professional School Counseling, 203-208. Retrieved March 12, 2014, from www.schoolcounselor.org
Why do people hurt themselves? In a journal article from the American Journal of Psychotherapy, Louise Ruberman notes that about 2.1 million teens suffer from nonsuicidal self-injury, or NSSI. Young women between the ages of 14 and 18 years old take part in NSSI due to poor development of the relationship with their mothers, childhood abuse, and psychiatric disorders. Although there are multiple ways of causing injury to oneself, cutting of the skin as a means of self-mutilation is said to be the most common (Ruberman 119). We will start out by examining the problems that occur during the relationship development between a mother and a daughter at a young age.
The stage of adolescence contains major changes which can bring stress, confusion, and anxiety. Feelings of self-consciousness, low self esteem and comparison with peers start occurring during this time. Along with the physical changes there is also hormonal and brain changes that affect the adolescent physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. During this time a person can feel tremendous pressure to find their place in the world among a great deal of confusion (“Eating Disorders and Adolescence,” 2013). Body image concerns and peer pressure are heightened during the period of adolescence, and are potential risk factors in the development of an eating disorder. While eating disorders can affects males and females of all ages, the average age of onset for Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and disordered eating takes place during adolescence. These disorders are often a coping mechanism for people to attempt to gain control of their situation when they feel helpless among other aspects of life (“Eating Disorders and Adolescence,” 2013). Eating disorders in children and teens can lead to a number of serious physical problems and even death (Kam, n.d.).
Some ways of self harm are pinching, cutting, starving, carving, scratching, pulling, and hitting oneself (young minds). Most people that don’t really understand say that it is from attention but to be honest teens self harm to take the pain from their hearts. Some teens may self harm because it is something they have control over (young minds). Some teens self harm to make sense of the pain that is happing in their lives (self harm).
Wilkinson P, Kelvin R, Roberts C, Dubika B, Goodyer I (2011) “Clinical & Psychosocial Predictors of Suicide Attempts and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in the Adolescents Depression, Anti-Depressants & Psychotherapy Trial (ADAPT)” The American Journal of Psychiatry 168(5) page 495-501
Styer, Denise M. "An Understanding of Self-Injury and Suicide." Prevention Researcher Integrated Research Services, Inc., Vol. 13, Supplement. Dec. 2006: 10-12. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. .
Some say that the teenage years are one of the most challenging and trying times in an individual’s life. Many changes take place, both emotionally and physically, which sometimes can give the feeling of excitement… or in other cases… complete confusion and utter turmoil. Because emotions tend to run high during this period of life due to hormones, some teens resort to an unhealthy way of coping to deal with their emotional pain. This unhealthy way of dealing with emotional pain is also known as self injury. Self injury (or self harm) is widely known to take place during the teenage years up until the early years of adulthood (ages 14-24)when judgments become more defined, criticism becomes harsher, and limits are tested. The transition from childhood to adulthood may sound exciting and adventurous to some, but to others, it’s a nightmare they wish they could wake up from.
Emotional and behavioral disorders manifest from various sources. For some children, the core of these disorders is rooted in such factors as “family adversity...poverty, caregiving instability, maternal depression, family stress…marital discord…dysfunctional parenting patterns…abuse and neglect” (Fox, Dunlap & Cushing, 2002, p. 150). These factors are stressors that affect children both emotionally and behaviorally. Students have their educational performance and academic success impeded by such stressors once in school, which creates even more stress as they find themselves frustrated and failing. As a result, problem behaviors may manifest that can be described as disruptive, impulsive, pre-occupied, resistant to change, aggressive, intimidating, or dishonest. Such behaviors may also inflict self-harm.
It seems like every little girl dreams of becoming a model. They want to be thin and pretty like the models they see on television and in magazines. Often the desire becomes an obsession and young girls see "thinness" as being a needed characteristic. For many girls, the teenage years are spent trying to acquire this look. Females are trying diets and are exercising like it is a competition to see who can lose the most weight the quickest. The obsession of many young girls over their appearance or weight has led to a growing number of people who have developed an eating disorder to try to deal with their lack of self-esteem or other related problems.
Teenagers constantly worry about their body image. Magazines, newspapers, and television don’t exactly help to boost their confidence. The portrayal of stick thin woman and body building men forces teens to believe they need to achieve that “perfect” body and look. The biggest issue of these images being broadcasted to teens is the effects that the images have on them. Teenagers who obsess over their body image can experience stress due to trying to impress others, develop an eating disorder, and neglect, and even jeopardize, important aspects of their lives when they focus too much on their body image.
Some students admitted to hurting themselves on purpose because of being stressed or upset by banging their head or body on an object, cutting themselves, stabbing themselves, as well as hitting, biting, or burning themselves (Blazer, 2010). When the effects of the pressure and stress on students is this drastic, it is extremely important that something is done about it. Its time that students were encouraged to become well-rounded individuals instead of focusing on having a perfect GPA. Its time to make school something that the students can look back on and think that it was a meaningful time where they learned a lot about life instead of a time where they thought they would have a break down because they got a low score on a test. School should be a time to make mistakes in a safe environment that they can learn from, not a place where they are petrified to make a mistake for fear of retribution on their grade cards.