Societal beauty standards can put significant pressure on individuals to ‘look a certain way’ or ‘have a specific body shape’.
The influence of these ‘standards’ can affect a person’s mental health by increasing the risk of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and social isolation – especially among young females – reported medicalnewstoday.com.
With the inundation of ‘desirable’ body images across all forms of media, the effect on individual mental health has also become the focus of an increasing number of major research studies.
Body image concerns related to weight or other dimensions of appearance, distributed daily via social media and television, ‘have become a growing issue globally’, confirmed a joint study by US and Brazilian researchers published in Global Mental Health.
According to the US Office Of Women’s Health, young American females are ‘more likely to experience body image issues because they often feel pressure to measure up to unrealistic beauty standards placed on them by society and culture’.
The Office noted US females ‘are exposed to messages about how they should look from the moment they are born’. And it emphasised ‘teens and young girls are also more likely to be given praise for how they look rather than for their actions or thoughts’.
A US meta-analysis of results from 77 studies, reported in Psychological Bulletin, found ‘exposure to thin-ideal body types through the media is directly related to body image concerns among females’.
These body image issues – and associated ‘beauty standards’ relating to height and weight, facial proportions and body shape (the ideals and perceptions of beauty that society and culture place on people) – contribute ‘to various mental health issues, including eating disorders, depression, anxiety, self-esteem issues and social isolation’, reported medicalnewstoday.com.
They are also constantly shown media images of unrealistic standards, where ‘many of the images have been altered using technology, causing these young females to strive for body ideals and beauty that do not actually exist’.
Accordingly, the Dove Global Girls Beauty and Confidence Report found 54% of females aged 10-17 globally ‘have low-to-medium body self-esteem’.
Similarly a German study published in Frontiers In Psychiatry reported 10-30% of males feel ‘dissatisfied with their bodies’, with 69% of male adolescents ‘dissatisfied with their bodies due to their weight’.
The UK Mental Health Foundation has emphasised body dissatisfaction ‘can lead to poorer quality of life and psychological distress’ as well as ‘increase the risk of unhealthy eating habits and eating disorders’.
And the US Office Of Women’s Health emphasises negative body image, or body dissatisfaction, can also lead to low self-esteem, which ‘can affect various aspects of daily life’ – for example, ‘an individual may choose not to be around other people or constantly obsess about how much they exercise or eat’.
Body image is a significant risk factor for various eating disorders, according to a study published in Psychiatric Clinics Of North America. And the US National Eating Disorders Association reports body dissatisfaction can also increase a person’s risk for disordered eating and other harmful behaviours to change their appearance. This may include restrictive eating, steroid use, diet pills and exercising excessively.
Similarly, the Dove Confidence Report found globally 50% of young females have ‘put their health at risk by not eating or not going to the doctor’; among those who already experience a low body image, 80% have put their health at risk in these ways.
Recent research has also shown a strong association between body image dissatisfaction and symptoms of depression. A study reported in the Brazilian Journal of Medical and Biological Research found this is particularly true among young females who are overweight or obese.
Another separate study published in the Brazilian Journal Of Psychiatry reported adolescents with ‘body image dissatisfaction’ were 3.7 times more likely to experience and report depressive symptoms.
Other studies have reported ‘body image dissatisfaction’ has strong links to symptoms of anxiety disorders in adolescents. US research in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology found ‘higher baseline levels of body image dissatisfaction’ were directly related to higher initial symptoms of anxiety disorders, such as generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder and social anxiety disorder.
Another Greek study published in the journal Diseases described ‘social physique anxiety’: how some people experience excessive concern about how others judge them based on their weight, height or body shape – causing embarrassment, worry and shame.
The Dove Confidence Report also noted significant increases in ‘social isolation’ and found 60% of young females globally have chosen ‘not to attend social engagements or be assertive in their opinions because of their self-esteem’; among those with low body esteem, these numbered 80%.
The survey also found 40% of young females have opted ‘not to participate in sports or extra-curricular activities’ because they are not comfortable with the way their bodies look.
And the UK Mental Health Foundation also notes on its website that as females age, their body image dissatisfaction can also negatively affect their ability to be intimate with their partner.
A major French study titled ‘Social Media Use and Body Image Disorders: Association between Frequency of Comparing One’s Own Physical Appearance to That of People Being Followed on Social Media and Body Dissatisfaction and Drive for Thinness’ examined how the use of social media has grown over the last decade – especially among teenagers and young adults – and its affect upon body dissatisfaction.
The study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, analysed 1,331 subjects aged 15-35 (mean age 24.2), including 1,138 subjects from the general population and 193 patients suffering eating disorders; all participants completed an online questionnaire assessing social media use (followed accounts, selfies posted, image comparison frequency).
The researchers found an individual’s increased use of social media led to an increased comparison to other people’s bodies, higher levels of body dissatisfaction and a higher drive for thinness. Similarly, a survey by the UK Mental Health Foundation found 40% of teenagers reported social media images resulted in them ‘worrying about their own bodies’.
Meanwhile, the US Office Of Women’s Health has warned that parents and caregivers can significantly influence their children’s mental health, and noted children who grow up with parents or caregivers ‘who are constantly worried about their own weight or their child’s weight, may be more likely to grow up to have a negative body image’.
