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Original Study
| Published: September 25, 2023
Importance of Body Image for Teenagers – Impact, Challenges, and Solutions
Student, Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan, New Delhi, Delhi, India Google Scholar More about the auther
Student, St. Joseph’s Academy, Rajpur Road, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India Google Scholar More about the auther
DIP: 18.01.380.20231103
DOI: 10.25215/1103.380
ABSTRACT
This cross-sectional research study aimed to investigate the importance of body image for teenagers, challenges they faced in maintaining a positive body image, and impacts of negative body image. A structured dichotomous (Yes/No) questionnaire comprising 30 questions was designed to assess various aspects of body image concerns among teenagers and possible solutions to this issue. This was answered by 160 respondents who were school and college students aged 13-19 years (both inclusive), across 14 Indian states and 6 countries (including India, China, Jordan, Italy, Türkiye, and the United Kingdom). The results revealed that an alarming 81.3% of the surveyed teenagers reported experiencing body image issues. 59.4% respondents did not usually feel ‘physically attractive’, and 57.5% respondents were affected by others’ opinions on their bodily appearance. More than half (51.9%) respondents exercised because of negative body image and 62.5% dressed a certain way in order to camouflage their disliked features. These findings highlight the significant prevalence of body image concerns among adolescents and emphasise the need for targeted interventions and support to address these issues and promote positive body image development during this critical stage of life.
Keywords
Body Image, Teenagers, Social Psychology, Self-Concept, Social Norms
This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2023, Sabnis, A. & Vijjan, A.
Received: August 13, 2023; Revision Received: September 21, 2023; Accepted: September 25, 2023
Article Overview
ISSN 2348-5396
ISSN 2349-3429
18.01.380.20231103
10.25215/1103.380
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Published in Volume 11, Issue 3, July-September, 2023