Media Affects Young Girls Body Satisfaction.

 

Research question.

What effects does media's use on the self-esteem of young girls concerning their body satisfaction?

Does media uses have positive or negative effects on the body perception of the young through the posting and comments provided by the internet users?

 

Justification.

 Media has been associated with the increases in the negative effects it causes to its users, especially young people. The effects to young girls are concerning the self-image and acceptance of oneself in the context of appearance. Social media, for instance, is associated with the increased cases of cyberbullying that have led to increased psychological and physical abuse of the youths. The consideration of the effects of the media on young girls is a concern in determining the effects of social media on their well-being. As girls are creatures associated with beauty, social media can enhance one's self-confidence or influence one's perception of self negatively.

Theory and Background Research.

Despite the increase in the body image perception to the positive post and comments about the body image, helping to increase their self-esteem, the opposite is also true.  Social media exposure to young girls negatively affects their perception of body image (Rodgers, et al., 2019).  Social media is connected with the development of loneliness among the users, envy, anxiety and depression among the users, and poor social life. The continuances comment on the post on the self-image is associated with some negative post that negatively affects the young girls' perception of their body image. The increases perception of the body image where beauty is based on the stereotypic description and association of thin bodies with beauty and thus high self-esteem.

Globalization has affected the different perceptions of the body image in the developing nation, where they associated the development of the thick body with a perfect body image. The western media has directly affected the perception of body image to women in these countries, causing them to adapt to the western perception of body image (Thompson, 2020). This, concerning the community description, has led to dissatisfaction with the community perception of body image affecting the women's self-esteem negatively. Due to this, the perception of body image has been associated with the concept of financial success as the stereotyping of the thin body in western culture is linked to women with thin bodies. This has led to negative increases in body satisfaction, which is associated with increased eating disorders among women in developing countries as they try to obtain thin bodies.

According to the world health organization, the association of the thin body to the stereotypic definition of body satisfaction has led to the development of unhealthy bodies. Among the women in the developing countries, cases of smaller body mass index have been reported in all cases where they have been exposed to the western media (Tamplin, McLean, & Paxton, 2018). The condition developed through the engagement in unhealthy eating habits has resulted in the development of the body associated with underweight conditions among women. The development in the smaller body index has resulted in the development of diseases and illnesses in women as they strive to attain levels of body satisfaction through thin bodies. The effects on the body image thus lead to reduced dissatisfaction as the individual health is affected through the western stereotype on thin bodies.

The development of the women eating disorder is associated with earlier exposure to the media where the thin perception body is introduced. The linking of the thin body with other positive attributes forces the development of the thin bodies as they are driven by social pressure and bias toward the thick bodies. The failure to engage in the diet to obtain a thin body leads to the development of body image dissatisfaction, thus poor body image perception (Damiano, et al., 2015). Similarly, the body image development characterized by the smaller body image due to an unhealthy diet also leads to body image dissatisfaction. In this, the dietary procedure is involved in the girls' engagement to the media exposure, and the increases cases of image dissatisfaction. The women perception of the body image and the development of dissatisfaction with the individual body image is related to the time of exposure to the media.

Media exposure affects the women in the community where their focus in the development is the concept of appearance for body image satisfaction. The sociocultural theory stages the concept of the children, especially girls' appearance, to be influenced by the peers, parent and the media exposure. Media exposure is linked to the negative development in the woman body image perception associated with self-esteem (Slater, et al., 2017). The comparison of the character and the individuals' leads to the development of negative body image as the feature of the characters in the games are unideal. This led to poor and bad eating habits to attain the ideal body leading to poor body image perception.

The stereotype associated with the thin body through the exposure to the media has affected the girls eating habits as they seek to maintain the thin body. This affects their self-esteem concerning the description provided about the aspects of beauty. Exposure to social media at an early age in girls leads to developing a positive attitude, which is associated with thinness, thus involving their engagement and involvement in the diet. The diet provides them with the development in cases that causes them to develop diet disorders as they try to attain the thin body for the perfect body description through the thinness. The increase in the perception and stereotypical views towards thinness in return negatively affects the concept of body image and self-esteem, especially when they fail to develop the required body form as appreciated by social media.

The linking of the ideal body image to the socioeconomic prowess among women can lead to the development of a positive aspect in the individual career aspiration. Generally, in the western media, all the characters associated with the career and socioeconomically prowess are presented as thin, leading to the development of the career aspiration to meet body image satisfaction. In this, the body image perception of the women is the drive to attain career prowess in the economic grounds to build the concept of the body image.  The effects on the concept of body image are beneficial in driving the women's aspiration to success. Similarly, in cases where the women express body image dissatisfaction, they are associated with underperformance in the various filed due to the deteriorating self-image and thus self-esteem.

Hypotheses.

If young girls are exposed to appearance-focused media, then they can have lower body satisfaction.

Literature reviews.

According to Rochelle & Hu, (2017), the cases of body dissatisfaction are due to the exposure of the thin ideal media. The increases of the effects have led to the development of poor body image that has caused the development of the poor eating habit among the women to obtain the small body index matching that of the character in the current media. The increase in the pressure on women to become beautiful has been affected by the western media, where women's prowess and beauty are based on thin complexion. The effects experienced include developing a smaller body index characterized with the cases of underweight due to the poor eating habit to attain a thin body complexion.

According to Mulgrew,  Stalley, & Tiggemann,  (2017), The presentation of the individual features through identifying the positive features and the positivity development in thinking can help improve women satisfaction in their self-image. Despite this, the cases do not protect them from comparison associated with the ideal thin body complexion. To counter and promote women's body satisfaction, it involves listing the individual positive elements about their appearance. According to this, the only measure to reduce women dissatisfaction is concentrating on the individual positive reflection to measure their body image satisfaction. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference.

 

Damiano, S. R., Paxton, S. J., Wertheim, E. H., McLean, S. A., & Gregg, K. J. (2015). Dietary restraint of 5‐year‐old girls: Associations with internalization of the thin ideal and maternal, media, and peer influences. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 48(8), 1166-1169.

Mulgrew, K. E., Stalley, N. L., & Tiggemann, M. (2017). Positive appearance and functionality reflections can improve body satisfaction but do not protect against idealised media exposure. Body image, 23, 126-134.

Rochelle, T. L., & Hu, W. Y. (2017). Media influence on drive for thinness, body satisfaction, and eating attitudes among young women in Hong Kong and China. Psychology, health & medicine, 22(3), 310-318.

Rodgers, R. F., Damiano, S. R., Wertheim, E. H., & Paxton, S. J. (2017). Media exposure in very young girls: Prospective and cross-sectional relationships with BMIz, self-esteem and body size stereotypes. Developmental psychology, 53(12), 2356.

Slater, A., Halliwell, E., Jarman, H., & Gaskin, E. (2017). More than just child’s play?: An experimental investigation of the impact of an appearance-focused internet game on body image and career aspirations of young girls. Journal of youth and adolescence, 46(9), 2047-2059.

Tamplin, N. C., McLean, S. A., & Paxton, S. J. (2018). Social media literacy protects against the negative impact of exposure to appearance ideal social media images in young adult women but not men. Body Image, 26, 29-37.

Thompson, J. (2020). Western Media and Body Image Dissatisfaction in Young Women in Developing Nations. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 90, 45-66.