Body Image as a Function of Positive and Negative Comments from Peer and Familial Sources

A wealth of research done has attempted to portray an association between different sources of negative comments, such as teasing, and other areas of body image. Body image continues to be a severe problem for women all over the world, especially in the U.S., where the thin-ideal is heavily reinforced. This thin-ideal heavily affects young girls, of whom, 25% (in the US) are at risk of being obese or overweight, between the ages of six and 17 years old. (Birch and Davison, 2002) These young girls are in jeopardy of experiencing negative comments that may leave them with poor body esteem as they continue into womanhood. Research focusing on negative and positive comments and sources of body image problems are attempting to help these women, by understanding the precursors to this problem. This paper focuses on the links between teasing and supportive comments and body image in women. The research attempts to show that body image is directly related to body-related feedback from parents and friends. In doing so, it will test which comments are the strongest predictors of negative body image. Developmental researchers suggest that both parents and peers are significant influences in the construction of body image, and they have found that the importance of peer influence changes, while parental influence stays strong. (Birch and Davison, 2002) At an early age, the child's parents are his/her only source of social referents, while as they grow to school-age, opportunities arise for social comparison, which leads to their peers becoming significant influences. At a young age the damaging effects of peer-teasing and beneficial effects of peer-acceptance come into play for a child's self-concept. The looking-glass self model attempts to explain these interactions by framing the attributions that a person believes they have as a function of the attributions others are making of them. (Cooley, 1902). This model suggests that a woman will come to define herself by what others think of her. Because of this, there is a strong relationship between commentary, teasing or support, and body image that continues throughout a lifetime. Research studies have supported the looking-glass self model and have found an association between negative comments and poor body image. In Gardner et al.'s 1997 study, 44% of women reported that being teased by others was a factor in shaping their body image disturbances. Thompson and Psaltis (1988) study asked female college students to recall being teased, …