Teens stress most over body image
By Sam Benger
The Sunshine Coast Daily
December 4, 2007
Teenagers are
more worried about body image than the environment,
school and peer pressure.
A national survey of 29,000 young people aged between 11
and 24 found a third of both males and females were most
concerned about their body image.
The survey, by welfare charity Mission Australia, also
found young people were concerned about family conflict
(29.3%) and coping with stress (26.9%).
Caloundra City Youth Partnership manager Jody Tunnicliff
blamed media reports of increased childhood obesity and
marketing tactics targeting young people as attributing
to their low self-esteem.
“Young people are still developing physically and
mentally and constantly have expectations put on them as
to what to be, what to do and what to look like,” Ms
Tunniclifff said.
“That’s why they really depend on the family unit for
support and parents need to discuss with their kids
what’s really important and what they should be focusing
on.
“Young people need grounding so they’re not thrown out
by unrealistic expectations that will only confuse them
and lead to more problems down the track.”
The survey asked young people to rank issues of concern
including school, the environment, alcohol and drugs,
relationships, depression and stress. It also asked them
about what they valued in life and who they turned to
for advice and support and who they admired.
Almost one third of young people said they admired
family members the most (28.8%), while 13.1% said
friends, 8.3% said entertainers and 7.8% said sports
people.
Mission Australia Queensland state director Tony
Stevenson said the results showed young people above all
valued family and friends.
“Far from the media’s portrayal of young people as
highly materialistic, when asked what they value,
financial security lags some way behind family and
friends,” he said.
Mr Stevenson said it was important to empower young
people and provide them with tools to make informative
decisions.
THE STRESS FACTOR
Four students from Pacific Lutheran College share their
views.
Christine Riddell: “The most stressful thing is school
and there’s a lot of pressure on us to make a decision
about what career we want to do in the future. I think
body image is an issue for girls more than boys.’’
Emily Allen: “School is stressful because there’s a lot
of assessment and exams and stuff and that can be
stressful. I think girls are more focused on body image.
Plus in magazines there’s a lot of beautiful people,
like Mischa Barton and the girls from The OC (television
show) so there’s pressure to look like them.”
Erin Healy: “I think teenagers are given a bad rap in a
lot of cases. People automatically think that young
people are lunatics. It’d be easier if we didn’t have to
live up to everyone’s expectations.’’
Bronte McMahon: “I think the whole issue surrounding
body image has gotten a lot better. It’s not as big a
deal as it used to be. Family and friends are the most
important people in your life, so you look up to them
and ask them for advice on different issues.’’