What is body image? Body image describes a person’s perceptions, thoughts, behaviours and feelings towards their body. Surrounded by various types of media, children today are influenced greatly by the messages the media tells them. Many videos, books, magazines, advertisements, websites, music videos and many more media portray thin and idealised body types which are often cosmetically altered, for example having uncharacteristically small waists. Thinness is considered a standard body image for female beauty (Tiggemann & Slater, 2004). These messages which emphasises an ideal body image may affect both negatively and positively how children perceive their bodies and encourages body dissatisfaction. It may also affect their emotional, physical and mental health. This literature review will focus on the negative and positive effects of the media pertaining to children’s perspective of body image. Research suggests that children have body image concerns. It is no surprise due to the extreme exposure to media today. They are particularly …show more content…
This was proven by the research which involved 245 girls ages 7 to 9 years old. Many attractive and thin women appear in the soap operas and music clips which results in an even wider exposure of the thin body image to girls who watches these videos. The beauty message provided by the soap operas creates an illusion that one needs to be attractive to be successful and happy. Girls who respond to this might feel pressured into being good-looking to achieve happiness. Therefore, these factors imply how more exposure of these will result in stronger internalisation of the thin ideal as supported by Borzekowski, Robinson and Killen (2000). This research was very specific and to the point however, it should include boys in future research to examine the differences between young boys and