The effects of social media on body image in adolescent

The effects of social media on body image in adolescent

Owing to social media, many adolescents have become dissatisfied with their bodies, which has negatively affected their well-being. More than 30% of adolescents have succumbed to mental health illnesses such as depression and anxiety due to dissatisfaction with their body image (Burnette et al., 2017). This has further resulted in an increase in the number of suicides by adolescents as a result of severe mental breakdowns due to body image dissatisfaction. According to Fardouly & Vartanian (2016), the rise in body shaming has negatively affected adolescents’ physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Social media overly exposes teenagers to perfect body types and thus affects their body image negatively.

Key Aspects of Development

Physical

Three major physical body image constituents tend to emerge. These comprise perceived physical functioning, perceived body, and perceived hair and face (Jalali-Farahani et al., 2021). Among these components, teenagers refer to their preferred body, that is, the shape and size.

Cognitive

As a result of consistently seeing perfect body images on social media, teenagers may think negatively about their bodies. As a result, they feel dissatisfied with the way they look; thus, they may hate themselves. According to Jakatdar et al. (2006), white and heavier females tend to be highly susceptible to body image cognitive distortions compared to black and thinner females.

Psychosocial

Thapa & Subedi (2018) state that social media can cause low self-esteem and depression. Most of the posts display positive life aspects which are not always real. Teenagers do not have perfectly presented bodies, and comparing their actual bodies to flawless bodies makes their self-esteem low, which may contribute to depression

Human Development Theory

The developmental theory that will be utilized is the Erickson developmental theory. This is because it reveals teenagers’ crisis of perceiving their bodies negatively. As per the theory, when an individual completes every phase successfully, a healthy personality is developed and acquires rudimentary virtues. Typically, basic virtues are trait strengths that the ego could resolve in succeeding predicaments. When people fail to effectively complete one phase, this could cause a lessened capacity to finish additional stages and consequently develop unsuccessfully in the future (Powell, 2004).

Strategies

The strategies that an upcoming nurse must integrate into their practice are observing the physical elements of a person and assessing the psychosocial and lifestyle aspects. These help collect informative data about the patient’s health.

 References

Burnette, C. B., Kwitowski, M. A., & Mazzeo, S. E. (2017). “I don’t need people to tell me I’m pretty on social media:” A qualitative study of social media and body image in early adolescent girls. Body Image, 23, 114-125.

Fardouly, J., & Vartanian, L. R. (2016). Social media and body image concerns: Current research and future directions. Current opinion in psychology, 9, 1-5.

Jalali-Farahani, S., Amiri, P., Zarani, F., & Azizi, F. (2021). The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 21(1), 1-11.

Jakatdar, T. A., Cash, T. F., & Engle, E. K. (2006). Body-image thought processes: The development and initial validation of the Assessment of Body-Image Cognitive Distortions. Body image, 3(4), 325-333.

Thapa, R., & Subedi, S. (2018). Social media and depression. Journal of Psychiatrists’ Association of Nepal, 7(2), 1-4.

Powell, K. C. (2004). Developmental Psychology of Adolescent Girls: Conflicts and Identity Issues. Education, 125(1).

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PART 1: Development Paper Free Write

Purpose
The purpose of this free write is to start the thought process of what your final paper will be focused on.
You will need to think about a topic and will need to be able to pull together thoughts and ideas and
present them in a manner that is clear to your audience. This is meant to be a brainstorming exercise as
a way to plan and organize your ideas for your final paper. Be aware that your idea might change after
you receive feedback.

The effects of social media on body image in adolescent

Content
Please prepare a 1-2 page (double-spaced, 1” border) free writing that reflects your brainstorming
around a pop-culture idea and/or issue that is important to you. In your free write, please include the
answers to the following questions:
1. What is the topic you are planning on writing about?
2. What life stage does this relate to?
3. Why did you choose this issue/topic? Why is it important/significant to you?
4. How is it related to human growth and development?

DEVELOPMENT PAPER: PART 2 – OUTLINE
GOAL: The goal of this assignment is to build on the free write assignment and create an outline for your final paper.
PROCEDURE: You will reflect on the feedback from your free write, and in a 1-2 page (double spaced)
outline, select the focus of your paper, select one human development theory that you intend to use
for your paper, and include and short introduction, thesis statement, and reference list.

DEVELOPMENT PAPER: PART 3 – FINAL PAPER
GOAL: The goal of this assignment is to synthesize and consolidate the course materials with a focus on
human growth and development and apply it to a current topic and/or issue within a specific life stage.
PROCEDURE: Student will independently analyze a current topic and/or issue related to human growth
and development and write a maximum 5-page (double-spaced, 1-inch border, not including title and
reference pages) paper about your chosen topic. The assignment requires APA 7th edition citation and
acknowledgment of references.

MY FREE WRITE FEEDBACK
Thank you for your free write. You have demonstrated a clear topic selection and some rationale for your choice. I think you have done an excellent job of citing the possible consequences of development. There are quite a few generalized statements in the paper, which you need to reference in the final paper.

Keep up the good work.

Because of social media, many adolescents have become dissatisfied with their bodies.
This has negatively affected their well-being. More than 30% of adolescents have succumbed to
mental health illnesses such as depression and anxiety due to dissatisfaction with their body
image. This has further resulted in an increase in the number of suicides by adolescents as a
result of severe mental breakdowns due to body image dissatisfaction……….. source?

The rise in body shaming has resulted in negative effects on the
physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development of adolescents……reference?

Complete only PART 2 first and PART 3 will be completed later.