یک مطالعه آینده نگر در مورد تاثیر همسالان و فشار والدین بر روی نارضایتی از بدن در دختران و پسران نوجوان

The current study explores the role of appearance-related social pressure regarding changes in body image in adolescent girls (n = 236) and boys (n = 193) over a 1-year-period. High school students aged 11–16 completed measures of body dissatisfaction (i.e., weight and muscle concerns) and appearance-related social pressure from peers and parents. Three aspects proved to be particularly crucial: Parental encouragement to control weight and shape was a strong predictor of weight concerns in boys and girls alike; influences of friends affected gender-specific body image concerns by leading to weight concerns in girls and muscle concerns in boys; finally appearance-based exclusion was a predictor of weight concerns in boys. The findings provide longitudinal evidence for the crucial impact of appearance-related social pressure and suggest that a detailed assessment of different types of social impacts can identify concrete targets for effective prevention and therapy for weight-related problems among adolescents.

Body dissatisfaction is highly prevalent among adolescents. Some authors even refer to it as a normative occurrence among adolescent girls (e.g., Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1984) and an increased number of studies have revealed that boys are similarly affected (Jones and Crawford, 2005 and Ricciardelli et al., 2000). However, because male and female body ideals differ, body dissatisfaction for girls and boys differs as well. Whereas adolescent girls usually wish to be thinner (Smolak, 2004), it is estimated that one-third of adolescent boys desire a thinner, and another third a larger and more muscular body size (McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2001 and McCreary and Sasse, 2000). Because body dissatisfaction is one of the main risk factors for health-endangering body change strategies (e.g., eating disorders or the use of steroids) further knowledge is needed about the causes of a negative body image. Although ideals are gender-specific, risk factors leading to pronounced appearance orientation and body dissatisfaction seem to be comparable for girls and boys (McCabe and Ricciardelli, 2003 and Presnell et al., 2004).