INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

‘ The impact of the media on the perceptions of body image on adolescents’

Community and Family Studies

Year 12Due Date:

2nd December 2013

Celine Hassan

Table of contents

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

Cover page and title page Page

Table of contents

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Literature review

Methodology

Results and findings

Analysis and discussion

Summary and conclusions

Recommendation

Bibliography

Appendix

Abstract

This project was associated with body image and the media. There are number of articles that propose that the media plays a big role in the influence of teenage girls see

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

themselves. The reason for this report is to show the impact on the perception of body image on teenage girls and that the media negatively perceives women. The research methods used in this report that were used were both primary and secondary research which was both qualitative and quantitative. It covers appropriate information and evidence concerning the issue of body image. In this report there was an interview on The Tyra Banks that has been taken into account as well.

There was a survey and interview that were used to collect results on the topic. The survey was given online which is easier because the people undertaking the survey are all anonymous. There were 30 people who participated in the survey and they were all between the ages of 12-18. It is an important thing nowadays to be sure to not let things such as the media to lead a person to unhealthy habits leading to eating disorders.

There can be many influences from the media and peer pressure in a negative way. These influences may lead to poor body image and the perceptions of how adolescents see their bodies. In the results and findings it was evident that many women want to look after their body and do look at the media for advice. Through conducting my research it has come to my attention all the fad ads they do for losing weight such as “28 fat belly trick” which was said in one of the articles.

Through the literature review, survey and interview it is then possible to examine the question which is ‘the impact of the media on the perceptions of adolescents’

Acknowledgments

Throughout the duration of this assignment there have been a number of people who supported me and helped me to complete. I would like to thank:

- My CAFS teacher for looking at drafts and continuously giving me ideas - Thank you to girls in my CAFS class for taking out their time to do surveys and questionnaires

- Thank you to my mother for her continuous support and encouragement during the duration of my assignment

- Thank you to my tutor for her consistent guidance in reading my work and helping me improve on my writing

- Thank you to the librarians who allowed me to read any newspaper articles or books during my free periods.

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

Introduction

The topic that will be studied is the impact of the media on the perceptions of body image on adolescents. I have chosen this topic because I at the moment am undergoing treatment to lose weight and I am struggling. Body image affects most of the women of today’s century which inspired me to complete a research topic on this.

Body image can be identified as a person’s feeling of sexual attractiveness of their body, in other words, how a person sees themselves such as, shape, weight. Our body image is based on physical activity. There are many things that can interfere with the way in which we perceive ourselves such as the media, peer pressure or family. Due to media influence people feel as though they have to look a certain way like a Victoria Secret model of some sort. Look at these women, or publishing women that are paper thin to the media will play with the mind of women of any age and may affect them in becoming like that are participating in eating habits that are very unhealthy.

Essentiality a person’s body image is the way in which they perceive the outside of their body, but in many situations the way in which a person perceives themselves will be different to how other people view them. This research relates to the syllabus area of individual and groups topic.

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

Literature review

Body image refers to a person’s feelings of their sexual attractiveness of their body. This has become a major issue among young women. There will be three articles reviewed. All three articles are connected and all consist of the same idea on the perceptions of body image in youth. The article ‘youth body image concerns worsen: study’ talks about how body image is an increasing problem and how the media has played a huge role on the women of the community. An interesting discovery that I read in this article was that: ‘In June, the federal government introduced a new voluntary code of conduct for the fashion and beauty industries, discouraging organisations from using digitally enhanced images.’ 1 A surveyor that had undertaken the survey said to Sydney morning herald, "I think it tells us that despite the fact that governments, welfare groups and youth agencies have moved to tackle the issue of poor body image in recent years, there's still a lot of work to do,” 1

This shows that even though theses codes of conduct have been introduced it is still a long process in order to change women’s perceptions of their own body image. In my opinion, this surveyors response to the ways in which the government is taking this issue has had a more positive impact then a negative impact on women. This article is unbiased and is a good article due to it showing the impact of body image on both genders. It shows that body image can lead to stress and the media’s portrayal of models can affect women negatively. Adolescence can be a confusing and unsettling time for young adults. Changes to their bodies, their interests, and their social relationships cause them to question who they are and how they fit into the dynamic and confusing world around them.

According, to the second article, magazines, media and teen body image’ by scicurious,

‘Scientists have known for a while that magazine reading in women has been a consistent predictor of body image and eating disturbances. Body Image and eating disturbances can include eating disorders, but also include severe dissatisfaction with your body, overestimating body size, and chronic thoughts about weight loss.’1

This suggests that when women of a certain age read magazines they want to become like the models in the magazines. This article focuses on magazines and what they put in the magazines is affecting the perceptions of young women on their own body image and causing them to participate in un-healthy eating habits. My opinion on this article is that it is information that is very accurate; it is a reliable source and the author is creditable

1http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/youth-body-image-concerns-worsen-study-20101117- 17w4t.html

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

because they have been studying this topic for a while. It talks about the true facts of this topic and its effect on the women of society. It is said in the article that there are more than just magazines that affect them there are things such as, ‘it's the constant articles like "28 Flat Belly Tricks!", "Slim down for Swim Season!", and other headlines, but even more important may be the constant depiction of models, who start out already skinny and get photo shopped even thinner’2 That is what I think about this article, running the minds of you women and how they their perceptions of how they see their bodies .This is what makes the article no bias.

As it states factual information about this issue and it allows people to think that their body image isn’t such a crucial aspect of life.

According to the third article written by Alya Salem,

“Body image today is so overrated in the media that it negatively affects any woman. Women should stop caring so much about their appearance because it is what is hurting their self-confidence.”3

These days the media portrays women such as Victoria secret models that are very thin to the public allowing the women of this century to have a vision to become like them, causing women to participate in habits such as, starving themselves, undergoing excessive exercise, which will not help these women lose weight, this is where the media comes in and makes it worse and allows women to care even more about their body image and causes them to undergo these actions.

“I hope I’m helping women to embrace their own bodies…to understand they don’t have to be small to succeed,” says gorgeous, plus-size model Robyn Lawley.3

The above quote from plus-size model Robyn Lawley, in the third article presents a positive impact on the young female youth of Australia by setting a standard that you don’t have to be a thin as a fish scale to be able to ‘fit in’ or ‘be a girl’. This sets a standard that anyone can meet and not allowing female girls to allow media to have a negative impact on their body image. Therefore according to Salem, her take on the issue of body image is that women take body image to seriously and need to focus on more important things. This article is not a bias, as it provides advice to women out there that are obsessed with the way they look. I think this article is an excellent article because it has a response from a plus-size model, which will allow women to be influenced by her. She is a plus-size model which shows she is not just a typical thin as model, she is an image of the average women in the community.

In conclusion, I personally think that all these articles have a connection. What make them connect is the factual information they provide in the articles which allow the young women of today to understand the importance of undergoing healthy eating habits, exercising habits to a minimum and giving women an insight on healthy habits.2 http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/04/25/magazines-media-and-teen-body-image/ 3 http://www.hilltopviewsonline.com/viewpoints/article_6d7a98d2-9326-11e2-a3a0-0019bb30f31a.html.

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

Methodology

The primary research was collected by conducting an interview and questionnaires and the secondary research that was collected were from the internet and articles. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions and was posted online and the URL was given out for family and friends to fill it out. It was filled with open and closed questions and so was the interview conducted as well. It was only 10 questions due to respondents not wanting to answer long questions. There were 30 respondents who were to undergo the questionnaire. Refer to appendix 1 for more detail. The identity of the participants of the questionnaire and interviews and will remain private and confidential.

I consider my IRP is not bias because during the interview and the questionnaire I was not looking for certain answers and the answers I got were all taken into consideration. Due to the questionnaire being online it allowed me to be able to not see who the people were participating in.

Only one person was interviewed for my research. It was a person was at the time of the interview was going through a lifestyle change. This helped with the answers because they connected with the questions being asked. The interview consisted of 11 questions all asking questions on body image of the interviewee and their opinion on the topic.

Bias can be defined as one-sided point of view on a topic or issue that does not take into account other ideas or opposing views. I believe that my IRP is not bias because I am not using information that I have received and interpreting it into my own meaning I am using it as I collected the data. I am not favouring any sort of answers. The survey was done by random people I did not know who answered them and that allows me not to be able to make a judgement about their answers. The questionnaires were anonymous to allow the results collected to not be manipulated.

Results and findings My survey was given online and 30 people participated in it. They were all anonymous. I interviewed two people to get two different views. One of the respondents goes to Al-Faisal College and the other one is a family friend. (Refer to appendix to see interview and survey)

The ages of respondents are below:

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

Age of repondants

12 or older14 or older16 or older 18 or older

This was done online so all these people that took part in the survey were anonymous.

very important moderetly important slightly important not really important 0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

how important is your appearanc to you?

14%

14%

The above results show that 44% of respondents feel as though their appearance to them is moderately important. 25% of them feel that their appearance to them is very important. 14% feel as though it is slightly important to them, and also 14% of respondents feel as though it is not really important. This information shows that people feel that their appearance is

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25%

44%

Number of people being surveyed

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

important due to the fact that the media is presenting women in a certain way which influences the way people feel about their bodies. This is causing teenage girls to take part

APPENDIX 1 -

Youth body image concerns worsen: study

By: Steve LillebuenNovember 16 2010

Body image concerns among Australian youth have increased despite government and industry efforts to reverse the worrying trend, a new survey shows.

Nearly a third of young people say body image is their top personal issue, ahead of bullying, alcohol, drugs and even crime, according to the largest annual survey of Australian youth, aged 11 to 24.

Out of 15 major issues, body image was ranked in the top three by 31.1 per cent of youths in the 2010 Mission Australia study, released on Wednesday.

The figure is a 5.6 per cent increase over last year's study, which surveyed over 50,000 youths, and a 4.8 per cent increase over the 2008 results.

Anne Hampshire of Mission Australia says the continued unrealistic portrayal of "the perfect body" in the media has clearly troubled young people who participated in the survey.

"I think it tells us that despite the fact that governments, welfare groups and youth agencies have moved to tackle the issue of poor body image in recent years, there's still a lot of work to do," she said in a statement.

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

In June, the federal government introduced a new voluntary code of conduct for the fashion and beauty industries, discouraging organisations from using digitally enhanced images.

Results from the survey show body image issues vary with age and gender; women list body image as their top concern while men appear to be more worried about drugs, alcohol and bullying.

Body image anxiety increases with age, the survey found, with 40.3 per cent of youths aged 20 to 24 listing it as the number one issue in their lives compared to 33.3 per cent of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 and 28.1 per cent of those aged 11 to 14.

Maddie Green, a 15-year-old from Sydney who participated in the survey, said body image issues are stressful for many young women, especially when they see women in the media criticised constantly over their appearance.

"We see it a lot, like magazines slamming what someone is wearing or how they look," she told AAP.

"It puts a lot of pressure on them in their mind that they're not good enough."

She added that even boys are starting to be affected by body image issues.

"A lot of people at my school, a lot of girls like to see the perfect Justin Bieber or whoever is popular at the time and a lot of boys try and aspire to look like that."

Family conflicts and coping with stress also ranked high among all youths in the survey.

When asked what concerns affected the nation the most, youths placed the environment as the top issue, followed by alcohol, while body image dropped to last place.

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

APPENDIX 2

Magazines, Media, and Teen Body ImageApr 25 2011 Published by scicurious under Neuroscience, Uncategorized

There's no question that the opinions of society play a very large role in how we perceive ourselves, particularly in terms of physical attractiveness. For example, in our society (Western/Sian), women are judged heavily on their body weight. Men get flak for not being muscular enough (though not half as much as women). We all get a lot of pressure to conform to a certain body type. And we get it through many different types of media: TV, the internet, books, radio, and magazines. But how much of a role does each type of media really play? Are there some types of, say, magazines, that are worse than others?

We've got a study for that.

A lot of research in this area isn't new. Scientists have known for a while that magazine reading in women has been a consistent predictor of body image and eating disturbances. I'm not talking about eating disorders specifically here, but a wider concept. Body Image and Eating disturbances can include eating disorders, but also include severe dissatisfaction with your body, overestimating body size, and chronic thoughts about weight loss. Magazines for both men and women are thought to perpetuate problems with body image and eating disturbances. For women, it's the constant articles like "28 Flat Belly Tricks!", "Slim down for Swim Season!", and other headlines, but even more important may be the constant depiction of models, which start out already skinny and

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

get photo shopped even thinner. For men, the magazines emphasize muscle gain, muscularity, and are increasingly coming to include weight loss articles as well. And these influences are particularly important in teens, which experience intense social pressure which is often based on how they look.

But does the TYPE of magazine matter here? After all, people who are reading certain types of magazines are after certain things, which mean they may internalize certain aspects of the magazine, and not others. Do different TYPES of magazines promote different kinds of internalization? The question here is a question of social comparison theory, which is the idea that teens look at media images to come to a concept of what is beautiful, decides how they should look, compare their appearance to what social and media images tell them is beautiful, and motivate themselves to conform to that image. The author of this study wanted to know what role certain types of magazines played in social comparison theory in teens.

To study this, she took roughly 200 boys and 200 girls in high school and college, looked at their body masses, and asked them about their magazine reading habits. She asked how many hours they spent reading magazines and broke the magazines down according to three groups: sports, fitness/health, and fashion. She also had them report how much attention they paid to the IMAGES of the people in the magazines in general (though I imagine some of this reporting was a little biased). She then asked them how often they compared themselves to people in magazines, how satisfied they were with their body images, and whether the students had a body image and eating disorder.

Using this data, she addressed several different hypotheses:

What I found interesting here was how the girls and boys results ended up breaking down by magazine TYPE. The author found that girls who read fashion magazines have a small correlation with bulimic behaviours, but NO other correlations between body image and magazine reading. Boys had no correlation here either.

Sports magazines were correlated with increased muscularity in girls, but NOT in boys. But the big one was the health and fitness category. For girls, health and fitness magazine reading was correlated with increased anorexic behaviours, increased bulimic behaviours, and increased drive to be thin. For boys, it was correlated with increased muscularity. The health and fitness magazines won overall for the worst impact on body image and eating disorders (which was a little surprising to me, I thought the fashions ones might be a tie).

This one's kind of a no brainer. Girls who compared themselves with magazine images more often also suffered more often from decreased body satisfaction and eating disorders. For boys, the same held true as well, with the extra addition of increased muscularity.

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

This one's also a no brainer. The more the teens thought about the images and compared themselves critically to images they saw in magazines, the more likely they were to have problems with body image and each disorder.

But there were a couple of other questions that found some interesting data. For example, the teens that read more of the central CONTENT of the magazines (I'm reading it for the articles, really) actually felt better about themselves. The author didn't mention this in the study, but I wonder if that's because if you spend more time reading the content, you spend less time looking at the models laughing and eating salad. They also found that people who spent less time noticing the pictures tended to feel a lot better about them.This study is getting a little on the older side, but I think the findings are still interesting. I'm particularly interested that the fitness/health magazines seem to have the worst effects. I think some of this is probably due to the fact that if you're READING the health/fitness magazines, you're probably in it because you want something out of it, and thus are already more likely to feel not great about your body image. So the relationship between health magazines and body image may be a chicken or egg scenario. And of course, the less people noticed the images, the better they felt about themselves.

APPENDIX 3

‘Media negatively influences body image’ by Alya Salem

I hope I’m helping women to embrace their own bodies…to understand they don’t have to be small to succeed,” says gorgeous, plus-size model Robyn Lawley.Lawley’s goal helps explain the issue of body image today. Women should feel proud of what they have and realize that every other person in the world has insecurities.Body image today is so overrated in the media that it negatively affects any woman. Women should stop caring so much about their appearance because it is what is hurting their self-confidence.Women must not compare themselves to the appearance of other women and say, “I must look like that” because that is the path to low self-esteem.The main reason girls in this era are not confident is because they do not feel attractive or “pretty” enough. They think they must obtain the perfect appearance in order to look like the fashion models and actresses they see in magazines and on television.However, other things in life are more important. Being stick-thin is not going to make a difference in a woman’s life. It will not make a woman happier or change life for the better.What is extremely horrifying is the way the web and media glorify eating disorders and thinness. Some girls tend to delve into an unhealthy lifestyle by developing an eating disorder.Specifically, among teenaged girls, anorexia is the third most common illness after bulimia and binge eating disorder. Both anorexia and bulimia nervosa are terrifying illnesses that

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

affect anyone’s life in negative ways. It affects anyone, male and female, physically, mentally, and emotionally.The good news is there’s still hope.Some influential figures in the media, such as plus-size model Robyn Lawley, are trying to send a positive message to every woman who wants to feel beautiful inside and out.American plus-size model Kate Dillon proves that message, “I firmly believe that what makes you sexy and beautiful is not the size of your body or the colour lipstick you have on. What really makes you sexy is what you project, your confidence and your self-awareness, having a great sense of humour and being really smart”The media should stop showing so many images of women that girls, in society, today perceive as “perfection.” Airbrushing pictures of celebrities and fashion models on magazine covers is also not fair because first, the images are not real, and secondly it is not ethical to make a profit from these fake images.Women should not to compare their appearance to other women or feel negative about the way they look. Being seemingly “perfect” or “sexy and skinny” is not going to help them succeed in the real world because it is all absolute nonsense.

APPENDIX 4- SURVEY

Please circle one for each question, all information will stay anonymous

1) Are you male or female? a. Male b. Female

2) How important is your appearance to you?a. Very important- b. Moderately important- c. Slightly important d. not really important

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

3) Would you say your body image is very important to you? a. no b. yes

4) Who would influence to lose weight?…………………………………………………………………………………………..

5) I feel pressured by……………… to lose weight a. Parents b. Media c. Peers d. Yourself e. Other (please specify)

…………………………………………………………………….

6) I compare my body to the bodies of people in magazines a. Agree b. Disagree

7) How do you feel about your body?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

8) Do you think the ways women are presented in the media are shown in a positive way or negative way?

a. Negative b. Positive

9) Have you ever been on a diet?

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

a. Yes b. No

10) From a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest) how much would you say the media allows you to change anything about the way you look?

……………………………………………………………………………………………

APPENDIX 5- Interview questions

1) How do you feel about your body at the moment?2) Who would influence you to lose weight?3) Do you think the way celebrities are presented in the media

(photo- shop, air-brushing) is possible to achieve? Why do you think this?

4) Do you think that the way women are presented in a positive or negative way? Why or why not?

5) Do you compare yourself to the models in today’s media? Why or why not?

6) Have you ever gone to extremes to lose weight? How?7) Who would influence you to lose weight and what would cause

your body image to change?8) Do you feel the media has an effect on the way you look at the

moment? Has the media had an impact on that? 9) Do you dream to be like the models presented in the media? Have

you ever gone to extremes to become like them? 10) Has the media ever affected your perceptions o the way you

look? Why?

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INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT MISS PETRISIS CELINE HASSAN

APPENDIX 6 – ABS statistics

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