Household Environment's Influence On Body Image

Body image are affected by many factors such as media, friends (peers), and parental influence (family) (McLeod, S. 2008). Household environment is an important influence when it comes to young people's body image. Parental teachings and beliefs on body image may affect their children. If their child is obese and the parents always say negative comments regarding his or her body, the child will feel depressed and start to go on a diet without the parents' knowledge. Other parents might also encourage their child to go on a diet at a young age, which is not a good thing to do as children need to eat a lot to grow and become healthy. Research found out that teasing among family members about weight is common. Positive comments regarding body

In addition to that, psychological factors also relate to personality. It is predicted that perfectionism is significant for body image. Introverted people, especially girls, are predicted to have alterations on their body. Due to factors in relation to low self-esteem, stress, injuries, conformity and popularity, the common alteration is surgery. In order to be accepted and have a sense of belonging in society, these people would find ways for conformity in order to obtain social security as people have high standards and sensitivity when it comes to body image. Whereas, the personality of neurotism indicate body dissatisfaction which leads to depression and low-self esteem. On the other hand, agreeableness have the characteristics of observing others and respecting them. They pay more attention to physicality as it is one of their concerns. Perfectionists has the tendency to reveal their success and capabilities to their peers. “Having a healthy body image means recognizing the individual qualities and strengths that make you feel good about yourself beyond weight appearance, and resisting the pressure to strive for the myth of the “perfect” body that you see in advertisements and in the media” (Family Services North Shore.

Advertisements and media have a stronger impact on body images than books. The rise of technology and mass media makes people obsessed and concerned in how they look. Every individual perceive differently. Studies show that people who already have the ideal image will have a hard time maintaining it. Society's ideal body is to be slim and masculine. Media illustrates and contributes to body size distortion: curvaceous bodies but are underweight (Myers, P. 1992). Stereotypes and generalizations in ads also continue to objectify women, and place stress solely on their appearance, thus devaluing their innate worth (Rajagopal, I. 2002). Mass media have the ability to change and shape people's opinions about themselves with one picture only. The picture is modified to change the perspective of the viewers to what is seen as "perfect" image. There are stereotypes created by advertisements. Women are often shown in a sexual or vulnerable position in order to sell the product. This can be proven by how men always look directly to the camera while the women have their eyes not looking at the camera. It is mostly propaganda. The models are used only for promoting the product. Sadly, people denies the truth and continued to be brainwashed by the media. In other words, media is shaping society and make society be what media wants it to be (Rajagopal, I. 2002). Not only women, children are also influenced by the media through