Forum für Wissenschaft, Industrie und Wirtschaft

Home Fachgebiete Studien Analysen Nachricht

Children who are dissatisfied with their appearance often have problems with their peer group

nächste Meldung

The aim has been to investigate the link between body image and peer group relationships.

- An important conclusion is that both boys and girls become more dissatisfied with their body and their appearance during this age bracket - even though the girls were consistently more dissatisfied with their appearance than the boys.
The early teens can therefore be regarded as a high risk period for acquiring a negative body image. The children who weighed the most at 10 years old were particularly dissatisfied with their appearance. Furthermore, overweight children, primarily girls, were bullied and teased about their appearance considerably more often than the other children in the study.

- Overweight children who are bullied can therefore be said to bear a double burden, which means that they are in the risk zone in terms of developing a negative body image.

- As negative attitudes towards overweight people are formed when children are young, Carolina Lunde feels that it is important to try to counteract these prejudices at an early stage.

The fact that children and young people have a negative body image can have a number of serious psychological consequences. It increases the risk of developing eating disorders and depression. Exercising too much is also related to a negative body image. Being dissatisfied with one's appearance can also limit children and young people in their everyday lives.

- They might focus to such an extent on their dissatisfaction with their appearance that they find it difficult to think of anything else. Avoiding situations that make them feel self-conscious and uncomfortable, getting changed for sports activities at school for example, is also common.
Carolina Lunde says that the title of the thesis "What people tell you gets to you" is a direct quotation from one of the young people who took part in one of the studies. The most dissatisfied young people indicated that their parents and their peer group frequently commented negatively about their appearance.

- It might be the case that being bullied and teased about one's appearance during the early teens when the body is changing so much has a particularly negative impact on body image, observes Carolina Lunde.

Title of the thesis: What people tell you gets to you. Body satisfaction and peer victimization in early adolescence.
Author of the thesis: Carolina Lunde, tel +46 (0)31-7864266 (work), +46 (0)708-288731 (mob.)
e-mail: carolina.lunde@psy.gu.se

Name of faculty opponent: Professor Linda Smolak, Gambier, Ohio, USA
Time and venue for the public defence: Friday March 13, 2009 at 10.00, Room F1, Department of Psychology,
Haraldsgatan 1, Gothenburg

For an online version of the thesis go to: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/19350
The thesis can be ordered from ann.backlund@psy.gu.se SEK 150 (excl. postage)

BY: Lena Olson
lena.olson@samfak.gu.se
+46 31-786 4841

This thesis consists of a summary and the following four papers:
I. Lunde, C., Frisén, A., & Hwang, C. P. (2006). Is peer victimization
related to body esteem in 10-year-old girls and boys? Body Image,
3, pp. 25-33.
II. Frisén, A., Lunde, C., & Hwang, C. P. (in press). Peer victimization
and its relationships with perceptions of body composition.
Educational Studies, 35.
III. Lunde, C., Frisén, A., & Hwang, C. P. (2007). Ten-year-old girls'
and boys' body composition and peer victimization experiences:
Prospective associations with body satisfaction. Body Image, 4, pp.
11-28.
IV. Lunde, C., Frisén, A., & Hwang, C. P. (2009). "Nobody loves you
when you are fat and chubby". Interviews on the continuum of
body dissatisfaction. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Helena Aaberg | Quelle: Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Weitere Informationen: www.gu.se
hdl.handle.net/2077/19350

nächste Meldung