Check out our blog for latest news and findings regarding eating disorders, including possible causes and cures, ways to support suffers through their recovery, and stories from survivors about their experiences.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Teen Girls Say Parental Pressure Contributes to Poor Body Image

In a Feb. 5, 2009, Calgary Herald article, reporter Michelle Magnan recounted conversations with five teens about pressures related to body image. As this excerpt indicates, the teens identified family pressures as among the more prevalent and destructive stresses they face:
  • Lisa: With my friend, her mom really gets her down. She'll say, "What do you want for your birthday? Maybe we should get you a gym membership." I'm seriously surprised she hasn't had an eating disorder yet, because her mom puts so much pressure on her. And the more I talk about it, I know that a lot of people's moms say, "You should look a certain way," and they don't.
  • Candace: I get it a lot from my mom all the time, like, "You should do this, you should go to the gym."And I say, "You know what? It's not my thing."And a lot of peers at school are really bad. They don't necessarily come out and say anything, but you can tell just by the way they look at you--the up and down glances.
  • Alison: My mom goes between. She doesn't want to overdo anything, so she'll say, "Are you going to eat all that ice cream?" But then she'll say, "You didn't have a snack today. Why didn't you have a snack?" So it's walking a very fine line. Parents have a really hard time, I'm sure.
Many teenagers feel most pressured from family members to have a certain body shape. According to the teens who were interviewed by Magnan, family pressure outweighed any pressure they felt from seeing unrealistic images in the media and fashion industry.

Labels: body image, parents, pressures

Posted By: Aspen/CRC

Comments:

James on 11/9/2010
Very Cool.I will tell my friend about this. Thanks
Teenage eating disorders on 1/18/2010
Diets attract us with assure of quick weight loss. But focusing on quick weight loss can lead to unhealthy eating and only short term success. The diet produce quick weight loss at the outset, they often cause your metabolism to slow. The outcome of the diet we have eaten less or less to keep losing the weight. People who exercise regularly not only lose weight faster; they are more successful at keeping it off. Exercise makes it possible to create a calorie deficit and lose weight without starving your body and slowing your metabolism.