Basic Information More Information Latest News A Parent's Guide to Managing Kids' Asthma During the Fall Farm-to-Table Movement Goes to School AHA News: High Triglycerides Caused a Diet Change – at Age 10 Kids + Gadgets = Less Sleep and More Risk for Unwanted Weight Cause of Paralyzing Illness in Kids Remains Elusive Health Tip: Preventing Backpack Injuries For Kids With Asthma, Depression Makes ER Visit More Likely For Poor Kids, Less Time Spent on Reading, Exercise: Study Train Tracks Deadly for Kids, But Many Parents Underestimate the Danger All That Screen Time Won't Hurt Your Kid's Grades - Maybe Does Parents' Smoking Raise Future Heart Risks for Kids? Parents, Throw the Garden at Your Picky Eater A Good Night's Sleep Is Key to School Success Health Tip: Helping Children Adjust to a Move Kids Often Prescribed Drugs 'Off-Label,' Raising Concerns Experts' Guide to Trampoline Safety Don't Let Kids Wander Alone in Parking Lots Most U.S. Parents Say Vaccination Should Be Requirement for School: Poll If a Child's Schoolwork Slips, Don't Rule Out Hearing Loss Nurturing Childhood Boosts Odds of a Happy Adult Life: Study Kids in Poor Neighborhoods Face Higher Odds for Obesity as Adults A Prescription for Medicating Your Child Safely Is a Charter School the Right Choice for Your Child? Health Tip: Mental Illness Warning Signs An Easy Recipe for Healthier Back-to-School Lunches AHA News: Understanding Connection Between Poverty, Childhood Trauma and Heart Disease Health Tip: Staying Well During the School Year Backpacks Shouldn't Be a Back-to-School Burden on Health A Kid-Friendly Emergency Room Saves Lives Many Parents Would Switch Doctors Over Vaccination Policy, Poll Finds As School Starts, Pack That Lunch With Nutritional Goodies 5 Health Tips to Promote Back-to-School Success Pot Poisonings Among Kids, Teens Double After Medical Marijuana Law Passed For Kids Born With HIV, Taking Needed Meds Gets Harder With Age: Study Building a Better Backpack Kids Getting Too Many Opioids After Tonsillectomy Explaining, Easing the Horror of Mass Shootings for Your Kids For Kids With Asthma, Allergies, New School Year Can Bring Flare-Ups Another Video Game Risk to Watch Out For Older Parents May Have Better Behaved Kids Are Too Many Kids Prescribed Antihistamines? Childhood Cancer Steals Over 11 Million Years of Healthy Life: Study Family Home, Football Field Most Dangerous Spots for Kids' Head Injuries Most Airplanes Not Equipped With First Aid for Kids Plastics Chemicals Meant to Replace BPA May Not Be Any Safer for Kids What Happens to the Children When Parents Fight? Health Tip: Giving Medicine Safely to Children How to Make Your Child's Hospital Stay Safer, Less Stressful Obesity May Boost Odds for MS in Kids Health Tip: Diarrhea in Kids Questions and Answers Blog Entries Navigating Different Types of Conflict Between Parents and Children Stress Resiliency and Brain Agility through Sleep-Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet Part VI Stress Resiliency and Brain Agility through Sleep-Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet Part V Stress Resiliency and Brain Agility through Sleep-Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet Part IV The Best Parenting Style for Effective Relationship-Building with Your Children - Part II Stress Resiliency and Brain Agility through Sleep-Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet Part III The Best Parenting Style for Effective Relationship-Building with Your Children - Part I Stress Resiliency and Brain Agility through Sleep-Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet Part II Teaching Your Kids to be Smart Consumers Stress Resiliency and Brain Agility through Sleep-Priorities-Passion-Empathy-Exercise-Diet Part I Helping Your Kids Avoid the Trap of Materialism Who’s Coming through the Door Again? Modeling Behaviors You Want Your Children to Practice How to be an Emotionally Intelligent Parent - Part II Natural SPEED Rap for Kids – Part I: Building Stress Resilience How to be an Emotionally Intelligent Parent - Part I Applying Empathy in Your Relationship with Your Child BULLY Boy/Girl Teach Healthy Living to Your Grandchildren Ways to Connect with your Child in a Fast-Paced World The Challenges of Parenting in a Time-Starved World Building Up Your Teen's Self-Efficacy - Part II Allowing Adolescents to Make Mistakes - Part I Building Resiliency in Your Child Conscious Parenting I'm a Bully, I'm a Bully: I'm a Bully, You're a Nerdie - Part II I'm a Bully, I'm a Bully: I'm a Bully, You're a Nerdie - Part I 5 Gifts Your Children Will Never Forget Three Vital Steps to Repair Parenting Mistakes Three Challenges Parents Face and Ways to Keep Your Relationship with Your Kids Strong Competition Teaches Sportsmanship Among Youth Hardwiring Our Children’s Happiness Of Budget Cuts, Schools and Students 10 Tips for Being a Great Parent Are Popular Kids at School More Successful Later in Life? Pushy Parents Family Life: Some Thoughts About the Role of the Father Sports without Numbers: Good or Bad for Kids? Cultivating an Environment to Teach Children Appreciation and Respect For Differences How Children Cope with High Conflict Divorce: How Are They Harmed and What Can Parents Do to Help Them Kids, Cupcakes, and Guns: How Our Cognitive Distortions Suffocate Our Children Another Reason to Save the Arts in Schools Preventing Childhood Obesity How to Make an Anti-Bullying Program a Bad Thing (Do Not Try This at Home) The Game of Chess Teaches Children Important Life Skills Addressing Problems at Schools in Context: A Philosophical Statement Helping Children Gain Self Control An Interview with Joel Bakan on Childhood Under Siege Play Therapy: A Healing Tool for Children Video Blog: How Abuse Affects Children How Divorce Effects Children: What Parents Can Do About It An Interview with Liana Lowenstein, MSW, on Play Therapy Mindfulness for Stressed Teens: An Expert Interview With Gina Biegel, MA, LMFT An Interview with Daniel Sonkin, Ph.D., on Parents' Reactions To Children Leaving Home An Interview with Charlotte Reznick, Ph.D. on Helping Children Cope with Anxiety and Stress Via Imagery Child Abuse Prevention Borrowing Babies: Great Practice or Exploitation of the Powerless? On Returning to School and Our Nation Education, Critical Thinking and Racial Hatred Summer Vacation, Children and Adolescents Cheating vs. Values and Ethics: High School Sports Teenage Self Injury An Interview with Annie Fox, M.Ed. on Parenting 21st Century Teens Updated Childhood Mental Disorders and IllnessesTopic Center New Child Development and Parenting Documents! Criminalizing Distrubed Young Offenders An Interview with Tony Madrid Ph.D. on the Relationship between Broken Maternal-Infant Bonds and Asthma An Additional Comment About ADHD, It's Really Real An Interview with Amy J. L. Baker, Ph.D. on Parental Alienation Syndrome ADHD, It's Really Real A Combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & Antidepressant Medication Works Best for Depressed Adolescents Teenagers and Sleep, How to Help? An Interview with Joanie Gillispie Ph.D. on Cyber.Rules: What You Really Need to Know About the Internet On the Importance of Fathers Separation Anxiety: A Normal Occurrence for Small Children Young Adolescence, Twelve to Fourteen Years Old An Interview with John C. Fleming MD on Preventing Addictions The Empty Nest, Or Is It? Correlation: Siblings and Depression? Boys and Eating Disorders The Politics of Divorce: When Children Become Pawns An Interview with Anita Remig, Ed.D. on Child Development Teenagers, Their Brains are Different An Interview with Jeff Bernstein, Ph.D. on Defiant Children Violence and Trauma: Virginia Tech, April 16, 2007 Helicopter Parents The Negative Consequences of Sexualization of Girls The Sexualization of Girls and the Development of Emotional Problems Separation Anxiety Disorder New Infant Safety/Enrichment Material Added To Parenting Teenagers and Suicide: What to Look for How We Know New Infant Development article posted today The brain's cortex matures faster in intelligent kids Videos Links Book Reviews 100 Things Guys Need to Know 3 NBS of Julian Drew A Guide to Asperger Syndrome A Tribe Apart A User Guide to the GF/CF Diet for Autism, Asperger Syndrome and AD/HD A Walk in the Rain With a Brain Adolescence and Body Image Adolescent Depression After Aggression and Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents All Alone in the Universe Amelia Rules America Another Planet Antisocial Behavior in Children and Adolescents Artemis Fowl Assessment and Treatment of Childhood Problems, Second Edition Autistic Spectrum Disorders Bad Girl Between Two Worlds Beyond Appearance Beyond Diversity Day Big Mouth & Ugly Girl Bill Henson Bipolar Disorders Body Image, Eating Disorders, and Obesity Body Image, Eating Disorders, and Obesity in Youth Boy Boys Branded Breaking Point Breathing Underwater Bringing Up Parents Bullying and Teasing Can't Eat, Won't Eat Catalyst Child and Adolescent Psychological Disorders Children Changed by Trauma Children with Emerald Eyes Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness City of One Concise Guide to Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Conquering the Beast Within Contentious Issues Cracked Cut Dancing in My Nuddypants Demystifying the Autistic Experience Descartes' Baby Dilemmas of Desire Dirty Doing It Doing School Dying to Be Thin Eating an Artichoke Educating Children With Autism Elijah's Cup Ellison the Elephant Emerald City Blues Emotional and Behavioral Problems of Young Children Every Girl Tells a Story Fast Girls Feather Boy Firegirl Forever Young Freaks, Geeks and Asperger Syndrome Freewill Geography Club Georgia Under Water Girl in the Mirror Girlfighting Girlsource GirlWise GLBTQ Good Girls Goodbye Rune Granny Torrelli Makes Soup Growing Up Girl Handbook for Boys Healing ADD Heartbeat Helping Children Cope With Disasters and Terrorism Helping Parents, Youth, and Teachers Understand Medications for Behavioral and Emotional Problems Hollow Kids How Children Learn the Meanings of Words How to Keep Your Teenager Out of Trouble and What to Do If You Can't Hug Me Intrusive Parenting It's Me! It's Perfectly Normal Jake Riley Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key Juvenile-Onset Schizophrenia Keeping the Moon Killing Monsters Kim: Empty Inside Knocked Out by My Nunga-Nungas Laura Numeroff's 10-Step Guide to Living with Your Monster Learning About School Violence Leo the Lightning Bug Let Kids Be Kids Liberation's Children Life As We Know It Lisa, Bright and Dark Little Chicago Lord of the Flies Loser Love and Sex Love That Dog Manic Mastering Anger and Aggression Mind Fields Miss American Pie Mom, Dad, I'm Gay. Monster More Than a Label Myths of Childhood New Hope for Children and Teens with Bipolar Disorder No Two Alike Not Much Just Chillin' Odd Girl Out Odd Girl Speaks Out On the Frontier of Adulthood One Hot Second One in Thirteen Ophelia Speaks Ophelia's Mom Our Journey Through High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome Out of the Dust Overcoming School Anxiety Parenting and the Child's World Parenting Your Out-Of-Control Teenager Pediatric Psychopharmacology Period Pieces Phobic and Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents PINS Praising Boys Well Praising Girls Well Pretty in Punk Princess in the Spotlight Problem Child or Quirky Kid? Psychotherapy As Praxis Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents Raising a Self-Starter Raising Blaze Raising Resilient Children Reclaiming Our Children Redressing the Emperor Reducing Adolescent Risk Rethinking ADHD Reweaving the Autistic Tapestry Rineke Dijkstra Ritalin is Not the Answer Action Guide Running on Ritalin Say Yes Sexual Teens, Sexual Media Sexuality in Adolescence Shooter Short People Should I Medicate My Child? Skin Game Smack Smashed Staying Connected to Your Teenager Stick Figure Stoner & Spaz Stop Arguing with Your Kids Straight Talk about Your Child's Mental Health Strong, Smart, & Bold Student Depression Survival Strategies for Parenting Children with Bipolar Disorder Surviving Ophelia Taking Charge of ADHD, Revised Edition Taming the Troublesome Child Targeting Autism Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching Teen Angst? Naaah That Summer The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook Of Child And Adolescent Psychiatry The Arctic Incident The Bipolar Child The Buffalo Tree The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander The Carnivorous Carnival The Depressed Child The Developing Mind The Dragons of Autism The Dream Bearer The Dulcimer Boy The Einstein Syndrome The Epidemic The Eternity Cube The Explosive Child The Field of the Dogs The First Idea The Identity Trap The Inside Story on Teen Girls The Little Tern The Mean Girl Motive The Men They Will Become The Myth of Laziness The New Gay Teenager The Notebook Girls The Nurture Assumption The Opposite of Invisible The Order of the Poison Oak The Other Parent The Present Moment in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life The Real Truth About Teens and Sex The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager The Secret Lives of Girls The Sex Lives of Teenagers The Shared Heart The Spider and the Bee The Steps The Thought that Counts The Unhappy Child The Vile Village The Whole Child Then Again, Maybe I Won't Therapy with Children Things I Have to Tell You Touching Spirit Bear Trauma in the Lives of Children Treacherous Love True Believer Twisted Unhappy Teenagers Way to Be! We're Not Monsters What about the Kids What Would Joey Do? What's Happening to My Body? Book for Boys What's Happening to My Body? Book for Girls When Nothing Matters Anymore When Sex Goes to School When Your Child Has an Eating Disorder Where The Kissing Never Stops Whose America? Why Are You So Sad? Winnicott Worried All the Time Yes, Your Teen Is Crazy! You Hear Me Young People and Mental Health Your Child, Bully or Victim?
by Lina A Ricciardelli and Zali Yager
Routledge, 2015
Review by Hennie Weiss on May 10th 2016
Adolescence and Body Image: From Development to Preventing Dissatisfaction by Lina A. Riccardelli and Zali Yager discusses how adolescence body image is impacted and shaped by many various factors, such as peers, culture, sports and media. The book draws on research across the globe to discuss how adolescence tends to view their bodies, and how their body image is impacted.
The book is an interesting read and the authors have been able to summarize data, findings and discussions into easy-to-understand facts, which makes the book ideal for the classroom, from high school to college. The information found in the book describes different ethnicities, addresses notions of body image based on culture, sexual orientation, sport, how biological factors influence body image, the role of media, peers, family and much more.
The book starts by describing what body image is and how boys and girls are affected in different ways; girls are more likely to focus on a slimmer body, while boys focus more on achieving a muscular body type. Then the authors discuss how body image is measured and assessed. Puberty is also noted to be a time of stress which increases body dissatisfaction for girls, as girls put on more weight and more body fat during puberty. Girls who go through puberty early are more likely to experience body dissatisfaction and a negative body image. For boys, the opposite is true. Early onset of puberty in boys is associated with lower levels of body dissatisfaction in comparison with a later onset of puberty. Media also has an impact on body image even though this correlation is not always direct. Girls spend more time on social media whereas boys spend more time playing videogames. Trends in media focus on slimmer women and muscular men, which emphasizes the notion that boys and girls should look a certain way. Those adolescents with a higher BMI (Body Mass Index) tend to be more dissatisfied with their bodies.
One of the factors closely related to body image is the notion of peer culture. More important than family is peer culture, which is especially strong around the ages of 10 to 14. Interestingly, when it comes to peers, gender does not moderate peer influence. The family is also a strong transmitter of sociocultural messages, even though it is not as strong as the influence of peers. Sports can have both a positive effect on body image, but it depends somewhat on what type of sport one is in. Sports that focus much on leanness and aesthetics are more clearly linked to disordered eating, even though the relationship is not always clear-cut. There are also individual factors among adolescence that contribute to body dissatisfaction, such as visible physical differences and psychological attributes -- the internalization of societal ideals and perfectionism. As such, the notion of body image is impacted by many factors that can contribute to either a positive or negative notion of ones body.
The final topic of the book is how schools and teachers can help support and promote positive body image. Teachers can help make changes in the school environment by working together with researches and creating concrete steps to promoting a healthy body image without recommending body image activities. The authors also discuss ways in which we as a society can promote positive body image, by labeling airbrushed images, banning underweight models and by focusing on risk factors that promote negative body image. They end by discussing ways in which we can understand body image by focusing on research associated with "everyday, meaningful experiences" (p. 221), as well as research that promote a positive body image, rather than focusing on negative body image.
© 2016 Hennie Weiss
Hennie Weiss has a Master's degree in Sociology from California State University, Sacramento. Her academic interests include women's studies, gender, sexuality and feminism.
