Body and Self Image

Body image plays an important role in the life of an adolescent girl. “Adolescents are […] seeking outside information to form a self-identity” (2) and look to the exterior forces to influence their decisions and choices with regards to their physical appearance. Media, parents and friends all play vital roles in defining a healthy or unhealthy self-image in adolescent girls. Due to the external influences in a teen girls' life, weight becomes associated with social status and positive responses from others (8). While "media images are central elements of the appearance culture" (4), "parent pressure to be thin" (7), and "social comparison" (3) with friends were contributing factors to negative self-image. Overall, "early adolescent girls base their self-concept in large part of their perception of the social response to their body” (8) and since “overweight individuals are relatively devalued at any age” (8), adolescent girls begin to develop negative body images early and quickly.
Negative self-image leads to frequent unhealthy behaviors, such as disordered eating haibts, eating disorders, diets and commonly depressive symptoms as well.
Depression affects some teen girls in ways that eating orders affect others based on negative self-image.  The media and adults surrounding these developing teens also strongly influence a young girls’ perception of her body. “The relationship between body image and depression seems important for early adolescents, particularly girls” (8) because of peer criticisim, parental influences about body image, and the thinness ideal.
Adolescence can reject these outside influences though through active engagement in recognizing the unrealisitic standard the media has set for them. In order to sucessfully reject media images, adolescents need another external force, whether it is parents or friends, reinforcing the rejection of the thin ideal