Education Section:
Part 1
Introduction
In this section:
Schools and youth centres are an excellent place to promote positive body image. Bodywhys believes that teachers and youth workers are in an ideal position to help detect, prevent and support young people affected by eating disorders or body image concerns.
Children today are growing up in a world that is inundated with media messages promoting unrealistic appearance ideals. They are spending increasing amounts of time online and it can be difficult as a teacher or youth worker to know where to start in promoting positive body image and self-esteem in this ever changing landscape.
This resource is intended to broach all questions and concerns you may have in relation to promoting positive body image in children and young people. This section includes useful information for school principals, teachers in primary school and secondary school, youth workers, school chaplains, counsellors or anyone working with young people. This resource also includes lesson plans, videos and resources to use in promoting positive body image, self-esteem and media literacy in children and young people.
“Focussing on perceived flaws can really hold you back from enjoying life. ”
— Eleanor, (age 22).
Why is it important for us to promote positive body image in children and young people?
Promoting positive body image in children and young people is important because negative body image can prevent them from leading happy and healthy lives and pursuing goals that are important to them. Concerns about body image can hold someone back from engaging fully with other aspects of their life. A positive body image is one of the building blocks of healthy self-esteem, which can enable us to deal with challenges and difficulties in healthy ways.
What is body image?
Our body image refers to the relationship we have with our body, the thoughts and feelings we have about how we look, our size, shape, gender and physical ability. How we think and feel about our body often affects the way we behave towards our body.
We all have thoughts and feelings about our bodies, these can change throughout our lives. Whether we are satisfied with our body image, unsatisfied or somewhere in the middle, these thoughts and feelings can influence the way we interact with others and the way we live our lives, affecting the way we feel about ourselves in general, our mental health and well-being.
Unfortunately research indicates that many young people in Ireland are not happy with how they look
Over the past 10 years research on youth mental health in Ireland has consistently highlighted body image as a key issue for young people and indicated that most young people experience body image concerns. Research in Ireland also indicates that body image dissatisfaction can be linked to serious mental health issues such as higher levels of depression, anxiety, alcohol, substance misuse and self-harm.
“Some people might think they don’t look good enough and they don’t want to go out.”
Is school a suitable place to promote positive body image?
Yes, the development of school based educational programmes to improve body image is widely supported in the literature. The school environment is a suitable place to implement health promotion due to the ability to reach a wide audience, to reach young people with differing backgrounds and experiences and to access young people in their peer support group thereby facilitating peer group change and increased support.
The lesson plans developed by Bodywhys have been designed in line with the Social Personal Health Education (SPHE) curriculum guidelines for schools. All resources have been tested in schools and reviewed and endorsed by SPHE for secondary schools and Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) Health & Wellbeing Team guidelines for primary schools. You will find the relevant resources for your class group in our resources section.