Parents Section: Part 2
The importance of promoting positive body image in young people
Why is it important to promote positive body image?
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.
“Focussing on perceived flaws can really hold you back from enjoying life. ”
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. ”
SO WHAT CAN WE DO?
The good news is that there are plenty of steps we can take as parents to promote positive body image in children and young people. Be assured that whatever your concern, there are plenty of supports available to guide you. Being a parent can be difficult, nobody gets it right all of the time. Often, accepting that we don’t know what to do is the first step to finding the type of support we need.
What age do we need to focus on promoting positive body image in children?
Promoting positive body image can begin from an early age - the earlier the better. Young children’s body image begins to develop early, alongside the growth of their physical, cognitive and social abilities, even infants have a general sense of their bodies. Research indicates that children begin to observe body image and social norms around size and appearance very young, around preschool age. Body image continues to develop throughout childhood and adolescence and thoughts and feelings about our bodies can change throughout our lives. Most people go through periods of being unhappy with aspects of their body or appearance.