Zion Educational Systems can help you find a faith based residential treatment center providing programs to help troubled girls and the roots of body image issues. We offer a same sex environment allows teen girls to feel comfortable enough to be open and build strong peer support which is essential in the recovery and treatment process. We are designed to generate an opportunity for change and dedicated to offering help and hope to families in need. Please call 866-471-8579 for more information. Body image issues in troubled girls is part of an identity crisis that reveals where some teens are getting their sense of self-worth from. In this case, she is getting her identity from what she looks like, instead of who she is.
What Are the Root Causes of Body Image Issues?
It is very difficult to pinpoint the root cause of an individual’s body image issues, but it is apparent that the cycle is complicated and includes influences from both media and peers. A lot of it is caused by teen girls comparing themselves to their friends. They look to their peers for a measure of who they should be, or what they should look like. It doesn’t help that the social media facilitates this activity. It is apparent that messages about thinness and beauty are conveyed to very young girls through the media and other sociocultural factors. From a very young age, girls are given Barbie dolls to play with, even the Disney princess dolls depict women with large breasts, unnaturally tiny waists and long long legs. These convey early body image messages that very young girls observe in supposedly child-friendly television shows, comics, and films. Young girls ultimately practice their roles for the future through play and using Barbie as their role model. They are given messages that Barbie is a successful woman who is also very beautiful and thin. By adopting these messages, girls are linking together the ideas of success, beauty, and thinness, and may connect these ideas as going hand in hand with each other. Body image during childhood has important implications. In addition to effecting a girl’s developing sense of self-worth, it may lead to dieting, depression, and related behaviors that are risk factors for chronic body image problems, obesity and eating disorders.
Parent’s Influence is Important to Consider
The influence parents and family members have on teen’s body image and disordered eating is important to consider. Parental over-concern with children being thin or encouragement to avoid being fat can influence teenage girls to become constant dieters and use unhealthy weight control methods. At Zion Educational Systems, we understand these sensitive body image issues. We help troubled girls learn to love themselves, boosting their self-confidence and helping them have a desire to take control of their own lives. Please call 1-866-471-8579 to speak to our Family Advisors.
