characterizations. Racial, sexual, and other types of
teasing are mores serious and can have a negative
impact on body image and self-esteem. Children
often try to pressure their peers to conform to what
is currently popular in clothing styles, language, and
other characteristics—all that can potentially hurt
one’s perception of their body image.
Complications
Without a healthy regard for one’s self, people can
often become very self-conscious of their body image.
Sometimes feelings of depression, anxiety, and isola-
tion occur. With low self-esteem and body image prob-
lems, some people use alcohol or drugs to offset those
negative feelings. Others turn away from their regular
activities and their usual friends—becoming with-
drawn and showing lack of interest in themselves and
the world around them.
Sometimes, a person can recover from such feel-
ings by re-focusing their life on good qualities, accept-
ing things that cannot be changed, and realistically
working on things can could be improved. In some
cases, outside help is needed in the form of a guidance
counselor, parent, coach, religious leader, or someone
else that is trusted and accepting of personal feelings.
Crisis hotlines are also available to help with such
problems.
Parental concerns
Parents should be concerned if their children have
excessive concerns about their appearance and looks.
All children will be concerned with some aspect of
their body. This concern is normal and is not a medical
problem. However, an obsession with one’s physical
body and appearance is not normal. In fact, an obses-
sion with one’s body image is called body dysmorphic
disorder (BDD).
The mental disorder called BDD usually appears
in adolescence, already a period in one’s life that
causes sensitivities in one’s appearance and body
image. In BDD, the person is very critical of their
body image even though nothing out of the ordinary
is seen by anyone looking at the person. The major
criteria for BDD involve a preoccupation with an
imagined defect in one’s appearance or an excessive
concern with a minor physical blemish or flaw; a reac-
tion that produces excessive distress in one’s social and
personal life and/or impairs one’s professional life;
and a medical diagnosis that eliminates the cause
from being other mental disorders.
Symptoms of BDD include compulsive use of mir-
rors and other reflective objects, social withdrawal,
abnormal grooming behaviors, compulsive touching
of one’s skin and body, obsession with plastic surgery,
lowered self-esteem, and compulsive attraction toward
one or more celebrity figures (often with features that
the subject feels they are lacking). The body parts most
often the topic of a BDD person’s attention are skin
and hair, general face (especially nose, chin, teeth, and
lips), stomach, breasts/chest/nipples, eyes and eye-
brows, general legs (especially thighs), and buttocks.
The person is often concerned with their weight, body
build, and bone structure.
BDD can often leads to depression, anxiety (espe-
cially when in social situations), obsessive compulsive
disorder, and suicide. Parents should be aware of any
BDD symptoms in their children and consult with
their family doctor about their concerns for the health
and well-being of their children.Resources
BOOKS
Knoblich, Gunther, et al. eds.Human Body Perception from
the Inside Out. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press,
2006.
Preester, Helena, and Veroniek Knockaert, eds.Body Image
and Body Schema: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Phila-
delphia, PA: J. Benjamins, 2005.
Wilhelm, Sabine.Feeling Good About the Way You Look: A
Program for Overcoming Body Image Problems. New
York: Guilford Press, 2006.
Wykes, Maggie.The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could
Kill. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2005.
OTHER
What is body image and why does it matter?. UGA Campaign
for Every Body, University Health Center, University
of Georgia at Athens. [cited April 13, 2007].<http://
nccam.nih.gov/health/stjohnswort/sjwataglance.htm>.
ORGANIZATIONS
National Eating Disorders Association.Home page of
NEDA. [cited April 16, 2007]<http://www.edap.org/>.William Arthur AtkinsBody mass index
DefinitionBody mass index (BMI), also called the Quetelet
Index, is a calculation used to determine an individu-
al’s amount of body fat.Body mass index