Obesity and Adolescent Development
In recent studies of obesity in adolescents and young adults, it seemsthat researchers had discovered many effects beyond the purely physicalthat make overweight an unhealthy thing. In fact, the psychosocial effectsare quite devastating as well, but they are not caused directly by thestate of being heavy; they are caused more often by the individual'sperceptions, what he or she believes about the overweight status thatcauses the harm. There is no firm conclusion yet as to whether a singlefactor or multiple factors cause the obesity that in turn contributes tothe poor self-image. Some researchers believe that the overweight conditionitself caused by a self-fulfilling prophecy allied to the overweightcondition. There is only one thing that has become accepted as certain, atruism coined by Alfred Adler and quoted by Hoover and Whitehead, 2000: Numerous children grow up in the constant dread of being laughed at. Ridicule of children is well nigh criminal. It retains its effect on the soul of the child, and is transferred into the habits and actions of his adulthood. --Alfred Adler on feelings of inferiority, p. 71 (1932)
Specifically, it noted that some studies had found arelationship between body weigh or body mass index (BMI) on self-conceptamong adolescents, with greater BMI associated with "significantly lowerself-esteem. In fact, a recent study of TV and obesity did showthat television affected sleep routines and family meals in a negativemanner. (2000) And, says Munson, for obese adolescents whoare teased and bullied, obesity is often associated with psychological andbehavioral symptoms, although she adds that whether pediatric obesityshould thus be labeled a psychiatric disorder is debatable and insufficientwork has been done in that area to make a call one way or the other. (Van den Buick, 2000) Van den Buick's study failed to find a relationship between obesityand watching TV. Miller and Downey pointed out in 1999 that thedata as to the correlation between obesity and low self-esteem had beeninconsistent. (2004) Between Adler's stringent belief that being laughed at causesdistress to the soul of a human being, and Munson's (and others') workindicating that being obese is the number one reason children areridiculed, there is ample reason to begin to investigate the ways in whichthe "effect on the soul of the child" manifest. " Short-term effects were demonstrated in experiments,confirming that females who watch "idealized thin body types" begin toattach greater importance than before on beauty and attractiveness, whichin turn affects their estimates of their own body size and feelings aboutit. "Overweight males felt their job skills and ability to do well at part-timework were poor," and "Overweight male students considered their athleticabilities to be poor. Several content analyses have shown that TV does promote an idealbody shape, and that people who do not conform to that shape are under-represented on TV; when they are shown, they are figures of ridicule or arestereotypical victims. Van denBuick hypothesized that people who already feel bad about their weightmight be staying home and watching more TV, which in turn would then makethem feel even worse. "Neither way of presenting overweight people offerspositive role models for people who do not have the idealized body shapethemselves. " (2000) They suggest that rather than catering to the physically gifted whoenjoy bodies closer to the ideal (and therefore, it may be assumed, betterself-esteem generally), we begin to use physical education courses as"feeder systems" to get the obese student with low self-esteem started ondeveloping a new perception and a new self-fulfilling prophecy for his orher life. " (Hoover andWhitehead, 2000) As a final note, Hoover and Whitehead pointed out the paradox in U.
Common topics in this essay:
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O'Dea Abraham,
Mass Index,
Sydney Australia,
Miller Downey,
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North American,
Susan Harter,
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Alfred Adler,
miller downey 1999,
o'dea abraham 1999,
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Acceptance Essays
