“The History of the Body Positivity Movement.” 2022. BBC Bitesize. Retrieved (https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z2w7dp3).
“The Paradox of Tik Tok Anti-Pro-Anorexia Videos: How Social Media can Promote Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Anorexia.” 2021. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(3):1041 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18031041.
Tik Tok is a fairly new social media platform that has become increasingly popular in recent years. Many consider this platform to be toxic, however, as it promotes unrealistic body images, mental health problems and body image/self esteem issues among adolescent girls. This study evaluates how increased social media usage on Tik Tok due to the Covid-19 pandemic has led to more problems regarding body image and eating disorders. Tik Tok’s “for you page” creates an algorithm where videos you watch continue to be placed on to your feed allowing people with eating disorders to constantly see others who promote these eating disorders. In this study, a case study was conducted on a 14 year old girl to see how Tik Tok influenced her to acquire an eating disorder and the condition it left her in. This study demonstrates how easy it can for teens to get an eating disorder by watching Tik Tok and how unaware parents and pediatricians may be.
Ambwani, Suman, and Jennifer F. Chmielewski. 2013. “Weighing the Evidence: Social Desirability, Eating Disorder Symptomatology, and Accuracy of Self-Reported Body Weight among Men and Women.” Sex Roles 68(7-8):474-483 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-012-0244-1.
Ambwani and Chmielewski focus on how both men and women suffer from eating disorders as there are very stigmatized gender implications surrounding eating disorders. This study specifically looks into gender disparities among weight and self-reporting seeing if one gender is more susceptible to inaccurate results. The method of self-reported measurement of body weight sometimes can yield inaccurate results as statistics mostly conform to women. This study looks at a select group of college women by completing the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire, Personality Assessment Inventory-Positive Impression Management scale, and three scales from the Eating Disorder Inventory-3, and were then weighed. The results were then compared with those of men and each gender’s age ranged from 18-23. Differences in weight reporting based on BMI were alike among men and women as both, under-reporting men and women exhibited higher BMIs than their over-reporting counterparts. The results show that women were more likely to under-report their weight over the males in this study.
Andersson, Joacim, Victoria Goodyear, Mikael Quennerstedt and Valeria Varea. 2022. “#Skinny Girls: Young Girls’ Learning Processes and Health-Related Social Media.” Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health 14(1):1-18 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2021.1888152.
This study examines the ways in which young teenage female-identified individuals learn the meaning behind physical activity, diet/nutrition and body image. Social media is also taken into account to see if it plays a role in these young girls learning about body image in relation to themselves. For this study, 49 girls in England from the ages of 13-15 were interviewed to learn about their perceptions of body image and how social media plays a role in their development. This studied discussed how in the past, bodies have been considered a more private conversation but with the advancements of social media body image has become a much more public discussion. An interesting find from this article points out that instead of adults limiting social media intake that they believe is harmful or promotes ridicule and bullying, adults should encourage kids to use social media to their advantage. By advantages they mean to use social media as a tool for empowerment and to learn about their bodies rather than letting it negatively affect their growth.
Bogaerts, Annabel et al. 2019. “Eating Disorder Symptomatology in Adolescent Boys and Girls: Identifying Distinct Developmental Trajectory Classes.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 49(2):410–26. doi: 10.1007/s10964-019-01174-0
This study evaluates the difference between men and women and how eating disorders are treated differently among gender. For this study the methods include examining the development of eating disorder symptomatology and BMI across adolescents by taking into consideration their drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, bulimic symptoms and adjusted BMI through a longitudinal study. Findings show the girls scored much higher for a majority of these variables over the boys such as drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction and bulimic symptoms.
Bravender, Terrill. et al. 2021. “Medical Admissions among Adolescents with Eating Disorders during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Pediatrics 148(4). doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-05220
This article discusses the implications surrounding eating disorders and how they have changed alongside the Covid-19 pandemic. Patients ranging from the age of 10-23 were studied in a children’s hospital for restrictive ED’s from March 2017 through March 2021. The research question focused on determining whether the pandemic can be associated with worsening symptoms of eating disorders. The method used was an interrupted time series analysis of admission counts per month to see how frequently people were admitted throughout this time period. The findings in this journal show that ED related medical admissions significantly increased once the pandemic hit.
Clark, Levina and Marika Tiggemann. 2008. “Sociocultural and Individual Psychological Predictors of Body Image in Young Girls: A Prospective Study.” Developmental Psychology 44(4):1124–34. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.44.4.1124
This study wanted to look into if body image was affected by social media and influencers in young girls and how they perceived themselves. Young girls ranging from grades 4-6 were studied to see prospective predictors of body image in roughly 150 9-12 year olds. Girls completed questionnaire measures of media and peer influences, individual psychological variables and body image. These results were then remeasured a year later to notice differences or trends. At this age, girls were not significantly affected from increased exposure to magazines and television but rather a significant increase in autonomy. Girls became much more self aware of their body image in this one year time frame which correlated with an increase in desire for thinness and decrease in body esteem.
Convertino, Alexandra D., Rachel F. Rodgers, Debra L. Franko and Adriana Jodoin. 2019. “An Evaluation of the 0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2AerieReal1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2 Campaign: Potential for Promoting Positive Body Image?” Journal of Health Psychology 24(6):726-737 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1359105316680022.
This study focuses on the Aerie Real advertising campaign and the effect it has on women’s body satisfaction. In the past, Aerie Real digitally modified their models to conform to society’s standards. Due to increased body positivity messages in the media, Aerie Real did a marketing campaign that did not modify any of the models and asked participants to unknowingly compare the campaigns to see how it affected their body satisfaction and self worth. Participants were female undergraduate students ages 18 or older. All participants experienced a decrease in body satisfaction as measured through the VAS after exposure to the media images, regardless of condition. Participants also stated that viewing Aerie Real images was less detrimental to body satisfaction compared to viewing the advertisements from previous Aerie campaigns that modified the models bodies. Typically women react positively to advertising campaigns that deviate from the “thin-body” standard society sets.
Dare, Julie, Costello Leesa, Helen Monks and Boyd E. Reid. 2021. ““We’re Continually Comparing Ourselves to Something”: Navigating Body Image, Media, and Social Media Ideals at the Nexus of Appearance, Health, and Wellness.” Sex Roles84(3-4):221-237 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01162-w.
This article explores the effect the media and social media have on appearance, health and wellness ideals in women. 25 participants from ages 22-75 were interviewed to see how their self-worth was affected by social media. Researchers wanted to examine if women felt the pressure of social media and if they felt the need to try to live up to the ideals promoted. Many women stated that they believe social media upholds unrealistic body standards, harmful social comparisons and their desire to achieve the health and wellness that social media presents. Social media can be a dangerous tool as many people will feel as though they need to live up to these standards that oftentimes can not be obtained.
Goffman, Erving. 2002. “Chapter Ten: Erving Goffman on the Presentation of Self.” Pp. 209-229 in Self, Symbols, and Society: Classic Readings in Social Psychology, edited by N. Rousseau. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. https://books.google.com
Hassan, Ebrahimpour S., and Farin Tatari. 2021. “Investigating the Role of Social Media on Mental Health.” Mental Health and Social Inclusion 25(1):41-51. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/MHSI-06-2020-0039.
The purpose of this article looked at implications social media has on the mental health of individuals. Anxiety and depression are two major mental health problems many of the younger generations are facing and this could be due to increased social media usage. The methods for this study included reviewing the published and available internal and external sources related to social media and mental health by searching the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Magiran and SID databases with the keywords of social media, health, mental health and mental hygiene. Using social media can be associated with problems such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, poor sleep quality, poor mental health indicators, thoughts of self-harm and suicide, increased levels of psychological distress, cyberbullying, body image dissatisfaction, FoMO and decreased life satisfaction. Despite these negative elements, there were also some positives. These consist of accessing other people’s health experiences and expert health information, managing depression, emotional support and community building, expanding and strengthening offline networks and interactions, self-expression and self-identity and establishing and maintaining relationships.
Hynnä, Kaisu, and Kyrölä Katariina. 2019. ““Feel in Your Body”: Fat Activist Affects in Blogs.” Social Media + Society 5(4) doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056305119879983.
This article focuses on the body positive movement and offers a safe space for people with heavier bodies to look to when feeling insecure and to gain confidence. The researchers specifically look into how body positive and fat activist vlogs offer different ways to make a space of comfort for bigger people in a sizeist society. Three main themes they explore this data through are the topics of exercise, fashion and sex. Researchers looked at other blogs who promoted body positivity for people of bigger sizes such as MTL and the popularity surrounding it such as their comments, shares and engagement. Body positive media is often critiqued for making self-love seem like an easy task but when the focus shifts from discourses to affective strategies of engaging followers and when considering participatory online material it is not as critiqued.
Janowsky, Jeri S. and Trisha A Pruis 2010. “Assessment of Body Image in Younger and Older Women.” The Journal of General Psychology 137(3):225-38. http://ezpro.cc.gettysburg.edu:2048/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/assessment-body-image-younger-older-women/docview/741063978/se-2
This study focuses on the difference between younger and older women and their body images. The aim of this study was to determine if both age groups have similar body image issues when looking at pictures of their bodies when they are skinner and larger than normal. The methods used in this study included healthy women aged 25-35 and 65-80 who were recruited for this study, some with no prior body image issues and others with some eating disorder tendencies. Results show that a drive for thinness was higher in those of the younger age group than the older age group. Overall body dissatisfaction did not differ among age groups, however, which was an interesting finding I did not expect.
Jarman, Hannah K., Mathew D. Marques, Siân A. McLean, Amy Slater, and Susan J. Paxton. 2021. “Motivations for Social Media Use: Associations with Social Media Engagement and Body Satisfaction and Well-Being among Adolescents.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 50(12):2279–93. DOI: 10.1007/s10964-020-01390-z
In this article researchers wanted to determine if social media usage affects an adolescents relationship with body satisfaction and well-being. The study tested a cross-sectional model of relationships between motivations for social media use, types of social media engagement and body satisfaction and well-being among adolescent boys and girls. Researchers hypothesized that increased social media usage would lead to lower levels of body satisfaction. Measures of social media engagement were not directly related to body satisfaction or well-being in the model. This may suggest that other aspects of the social media experience are important for adolescents, such as exposure to specific content. It is also possible that social media may have both positive and negative influences on body satisfaction.
Kelly, Lauren, and Sara Daneshjoo. 2019. “INSTAGRAM & BODY POSITIVITY AMONG FEMALE ADOLESCENTS & YOUNG ADULTS.” Journal of Adolescent Health 64 (2) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2018.10.280
This article discusses the ways in which social media, in this case Instagram, can be used as a positive outlet for body positivity in young adults. The goal of this study was to look into the body positive movement on Instagram and see how that affects individuals whose ages range from 18-24. The study conducted a content analysis of the top 100 instagram posts using the hashtag #bodypositive. Posts were analyzed by hashtags, texts and images were evaluated by overall tone. Some variables of interest included inspiration, body size/image, identity, love, mental health, physical health, and feminism. Majority of the posts within this category advocated for body positivity and mental health with positive and inspirational tones. Through the body positivity movement, Instagram can provide a positive outlet of self-expression for women.
Marks, Rosie J., Alexander De Foe and James Collett. 2020. “The Pursuit of Wellness: Social Media, Body Image and Eating Disorders.” Children and Youth Services Review 119:1 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105659.
This study focuses on the effect of social networks, Instagram and Facebook, on body image, mental health and eating disorders. Western culture tends to highlight this ideal of thin, athletic, lean bodies and this is exactly what is portrayed in the media. Social media can be very toxic for promoting unrealistic body images and many women in this study attest to the fact that instagram influencers promote these unhealthy ideals. Current weight-centric approaches towards health have a negative impact on physical and psychological well being. Not only are people being physically affected by these unrealistic body image standards, but people’s mental health are also suffering as well which is not discussed as frequently.
Nagy, Alexandra, Anita Palfi, Peter Petrovics, Barbara Sandor, Eszter Szabados, Zsolt Szekeres and Kalman Toth. 2021. “Examination of Self-Esteem, Body Image, Eating Attitudes and Cardiorespiratory Performance in Adolescents.”International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(24):13172 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182413172.
This article studies adolescent self-identified boys and girls and their correlations with BMI to see if there are any gender differences pertaining to self-esteem, body image and eating attitudes. A total of 374 students, 209 girls and 165 boys, were observed to measure the characteristics listed above. Questionnaires and various scales were used to measure BMI and eating tendencies. Although being overweight and obeseness were more commonly seen in adolescent boys, girls were more prone to have lower levels of self-esteem, poorer body images and experienced increased problems regarding eating behavior.
O’Brien, Kate, Denis R. Whelan, Dale P. Sandler, Janet E. Hall and Clarice R. Weinberg. 2017. “Predictors and Long-Term Health Outcomes of Eating Disorders.” PLoS One 12(7) doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181104.
This article studied the relationship between self-reported eating disorders and health issues. From the 47,759 participants in the Sister Study, it was found that Risk factors included being white, having well-educated parents, recent birth cohort and having a sister with an eating disorder. When looking at adults risks include women who had experienced eating disorders were more likely to smoke, to be underweight, to have had depression, to have had a later first birth, to have experienced bleeding or nausea during pregnancy, or to have had a miscarriage or induced abortion.
Paxton, Susan. “The Internet-Based My Body, My Life: Body Image Program for Adolescent Girls Improves Body Image and Disordered Eating.”2008. Evidence – Based Mental Health 11(1):23 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/ebmh.11.1.23.
This study’s specific research question asks can an internet-based group intervention improve body image and eating problems in adolescent girls? 73 adolescent girls aged 12-18 who self-identified as having body image or eating problems and who have access to the internet were the main focus of this study. The program intervention reported helping issues for these individuals such as body dissatisfaction, extreme weight loss behavior, effect and perception of social media influences, depressive symptoms and many others.
Siegel, Judith M., Antronette K. Yancey, Carol S. Aneshensel and Roberleigh Schuler. 1999. “Body Image, Perceived Pubertal Timing, and Adolescent Mental Health.”Journal of Adolescent Health 25(2):155-165 doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(98)00160-8
Tidy, Joe and Sophia Smith Galer. 2020. “Tiktok: The Story of a Social Media Giant.” BBC News. Retrieved (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53640724).
Wheeler, Kathleen, Philip Greiner and Martha Boulton. 2005. “Exploring Alexithymia, Depression, and Binge Eating in Self-Reported Eating Disorders in Women.”Perspectives in Psychiatric Care 41(3):114-23 https://www.proquest.com/docview/200799894?accountid=2694&parentSessionId=jWfGQZDhtbJKuI3YnV3ezz5YW5MbZZGMe1DxtOKEJfs%3D&pq-origsite=primo
Eating disorders in the United States approximately affect around 5 million women. Within this study, different types of eating disorders were evaluated including anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge-eating disorder. Alexithymia another important factor within in this study that was evaluated, means an individual has trouble expressing their emotions. This study aimed to see if there was a relationship between alexithymia and increased eating disorders. 65 participants were used, 35 with self-diagnosed eating disorders and 30 as non-eating disordered. Findings in this study show that there was a significant relationship between alexithymia and binge-eating and depression. Along with this correlation it was found that these individuals were more likely to have a history of trauma and health problems.
Wright, Jane, Christine Halse and Gary Levy. 2016. “Preteen Boys, Body Image, and Eating Disorders.” Men and Masculinities 19(1):3-2 https://doi-org.ezpro.cc.gettysburg.edu/10.1177/1097184X15575158
The purpose of this article asses the relationship between media and how young boys perceive it in association with their own body images. Interviews with six boys and their mothers were collected for the study to create short family biographies. These biographies were then used to illustrate the complexity of the boys’ experience of an eating disorder and to trouble the certainty with which the media discourse explaining boys’ eating disorders is constituted. Overall, the study found very little evidence to support the media-generated popular myth linking boys and eating disorders primarily to body image issues but more-so saw this phenomenon in pre-teen boys.