On 9/18 Emily, Alexa and I met with Yen, the YWCA volunteer coordinator. She began by telling us a story about a girl who thought she was ugly at the age of 5. Where did this little girl get this message from? Where are most girls getting this message from regardless of age? We thought about possible reasons where young girls are getting these messages from, mothers? media? peers? She continued by sharing with us a need that she saw and her desire in creating a program which focused on body image and girls self esteem. This is an issue that most girls can relate to from all walks of life, no matter where you come from and we saw a need for the community in putting something like this together. We discussed hosting an event where we would divide the girls into three groups depending on age. One group would be younger girls, another group would be teenagers and another would be adult women. We realized that what may appeal to young girls would not appeal to teenagers or adults so we knew we had to cater to each group differently. We discussed the possibility of someone coming and doing art projects with the younger girls and having a more academic presentation for the adult women. We also discussed having female speakers come in, but have not decided on who exactly would be presenting. Overall, we want to empower women, help build confidence and that beauty comes in many different forms not all physical.
The goal for our group this week was to find academic sources concerning body image and self esteem.
I'm really looking forward to this! Especially since it applies to the women in the shelter and the larger community, both of whom are encompassed by the motto of the YWCA.
ReplyDeleteThe article I found was called "Am I too fat to be a princess? Examining the effects of popular children's media on young girls' body image" by Sharon Hayes and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. I was able to find it via Academic Search Premier, which is under "A" in the library databases at lib.utah.edu. If anyone has trouble finding it, let me know and I will email a pdf.
The article starts by saying that "Recent literature suggests that girls as young as 6 years old experience body dissatisfaction." That's entirely in line with the issues we discussed with Yen. The article provides a great resource on information on general statistics as well as going into a study that was completed by the authors regarding the effect of popular children's media on female participants between 3 and 6. To understand reactions to the clips they showed, they used a room setup with toys and observed what the children chose to do after watching as well as conducted an interview. Though many of their results showed a lack of significant difference between control group and experimental group, there was a difference with the older girls in the experimental group. They showed less body satisfaction after watching the clips. I think this information could be used as part of the workshop with the parents at the YWCA if we move forward with the format of three groups.
I also found some other articles I haven't gotten the chance to read yet via Academic Search Premier. I'll list them here in case anyone is interested.
Prevalence of Eating Disturbance and Body Image Dissatisfaction in Young Girls by DeLeel et al.
Increased body satisfaction after exposure to thin ideal children's television in young girls showing thin ideal internalisation by Anschutz et al.
NetGirls by Tiggemann and Slater
Body dissatisfaction in female adolescents by Schneider et al.
I'm extremely excited to be working in this demographic. I read an article called "Sustaining a positive body image in adolescence: an assets-based analysis." This article discussed how that affects of teaching children who are overweight about eating habits should include self-esteem. By giving students strategies to eating healthy accompanied with a curriculum that teaches children to love their bodies helps more then just giving them information. Children in puberty age are extremely self aware of their appearance. If we only focus on change they will never be satisfied with the way they look. Children should learn that they are all different and they should focus on the health benefits rather then the superficial benefits .
ReplyDeleteI really learned a lot in this article because it emphasizes the importance of self esteem when talking about body image. It is important to give them the knowledge and the tools to live healthier lives but it is just as important to teach them self love. Our society has unreal expectations of beauty, we need to give children a realistic exception. Our body shapes, skin colors, pants sizes are all different but that is not what defines beauty. Everyone is beautiful and should know that.
This topic of self-esteem and body image is something that I am very passionate about, so I am very excited to move forward with our plan to work the YWCA. The article that I read was called " Self-Esteem and Social Support as Moderators of Depression, Body Image, and Disordered Eating for Suicidal Ideation in Adolescents". This was found in the PsychInfo database through the library research website.
ReplyDeleteIn this article it talks about how having a bad body image and having a low self-esteem correlate with either suicide or suicide ideation. This first tells me how important of an issue this is, and more importantly why does it have this effect and how do we fix it? The article later goes on to explain that having support from peers a family correlates with having an higher self-esteem and a better body image. I think that this could be something that we focus on during our seminar. I think that it is important to teach girls how to reach out and make friends with one another. These girls need to learn not only how to make friends, but how to make healthy respectful friendships that are good for them. It would be important to teach the parents how to show support for their children. I am excited to move forward with this project!