The Psychological effect of Body Image on Adolescence

For individuals in the adolescent stage, there are many experiences and social pressures that they face daily. In this time of development teenagers are starting to really ask questions like “Who am I?” While teenagers are in search for answers, they are bombarded with certain influential factors that can hinder or help them. Many of the social strains assist in the individual on how to define themselves, and the position of their social stature. One factor that is especially influential in the adolescent community is body image. Body image is an issue that has always been of important consideration for teenagers. How a person looks can determine who they associate with, how they are perceived and represent their way of self-expression. Most of the times in this life stage how an individual view themselves can affect them in certain ways, such as their psyche. The effects of body image for adolescents can cause certain psychological impairments such as dysmorphophobia, eating disorders, and early sexual practices.

Body image can cause the psychological impairment dysmorphophobia on adolescents. Dysmorphophobia also known as body dysmorphic disorder is described by Philips and Rogers (2011) as, “a distressing or impairing preoccupation with nonexistent or slight defect(s) in appearance.” According to Bolton (2010) usually the person with the disorder is continuously fixated with fixing or inspecting a portion of their body that they may feel is their biggest imperfection. This disorder mainly starts at early adolescence when individuals are starting to mature more physically. Due to society being so engrossed with the topic of image, many teenagers are developing this disorder and constantly try to fix themselves bases on what ma...

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...lly about their body image. The damages on the emphasis of body image cause psychological effects such as dysmorphophobia, eating disorders, and early sexual practices. Instead of focusing on how to be like everyone else there should be more advertisements for these teenagers on how to love themselves. Being that this stage is usually one of discovery it is time for the young people to discover their individuality rather than to suffer society’s abuse.

Works Cited

Berk, L. E. (2008). Exploring lifespan development (1st Ed.). New York: Pearson.

Bolton MA, Lobben I, Stern A. The impact of Body Image on Patient Care. Prim Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry. 2010;12 pii: PCC.10r00947.

Phillips KA, Rogers J. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for youth with body dysmorphic disorder: current status and future directions. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am. 2011;20(2):287–304.