Promoting Positive Body Image in Teenagers

Promoting Positive Body Image in Teenagers

Essential Evidence-Based Strategies and Resources

By Tina Rae & Ali D’Amario

A practical and user-friendly resource designed to equip teenagers with the skills they need to develop and maintain a positive body image.

Concern over appearance is not a recent phenomenon, but social media has fuelled an obsession with body image, bringing it into every aspect of young people’s lives. They are bombarded with a beauty ideal that lacks diversity and is based on impossible standards. Yet we all contrast our own perceived imperfections with unrealistic images of ‘perfection’. This tendency is even more acute in teenagers, whose bodies are naturally changing and growing, affecting their self-esteem and emotional state.

With peer pressure and the emotional rollercoaster of hormonal mood swings, it’s hardly surprising that so many teenagers suffer from negative body image.

This evidence-based resource will provide teachers, support staff and all those working with young people the strategies, practical tips and techniques to help teenagers build resilience and learn how to listen to, take care of and ultimately love their own bodies.

Sessions include challenging stereotypes, developing body appreciation, fostering a positive outlook and becoming media literate. They draw on peer-support and self-help techniques including relaxation, positive thinking, reframing, self-compassion and acceptance, prioritising and planning strategies, and wellbeing organisation skills.

Resources include photocopiable activities, worksheets, helpful websites, resource suggestions, fact sheets, case studies, icebreaker activities and prompts for group discussion.

148pp A4 paperback

Age: Primary, Secondary