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Why do girls watch their weight? Sociocultural and interpersonal influences on body image and weight watching
Metka Kuhar
Full text (pdf) | Views: 41 | Written in Slovene. | Published: June 6, 2003
Abstract: Body dissatisfaction, importance of thinness, dieting behaviour, and weight watching were examined through discussions with 34 girls in five focus groups and with a questionnaire survey on the sample of 184 girls. The article emphasis is on sociocultural and interpersonal influences on girl's body images and eating practices. Quantitative and qualitative results point to fashion and media as the strongest pressures to be thin for subjects. Family members and peers are beside magazines, TV programmes and numbers of clothes important source of message about the importance and attainability of thinness. Some respondents reported direct pressures to diet from friends and parents but indirect social influences were more common. These influences included social comparison, teasing, criticizing. A few girls live in a subculture of intense weight and body-shape concern that places them at risk for disordered eating behaviour.
Keywords: body image, adolescent girls, weight watching, qualitative survey, questionnaire
