- By middle school, 30-40 percent of American girls
say they feel too fat and 20-40 percent are dieting;
many by the age of 10. By high school, 40-60 percent of
girls feel overweight and are trying to lose weight.
- Young girls say that they are more afraid of
becoming fat than they are of cancer, nuclear war, or
losing their parents.
- Before the onset of puberty there is no difference
in depression rates between boys and girls. By age 15,
girls are twice as likely to become depressed and 10
times as likely to develop an eating disorder than their
male peers.
- Today, the average fashion model weighs 23 percent
less than the average woman.
- The average age for onset of eating disorders is
during adolescence.
- While self-esteem for both girls and boys is strong
as children, there is a significant drop in girls'
self-esteem around the age of 12.
- In a survey of working-class 5th to 12th grade
suburban girls, 69 percent reported that magazine
pictures influence their idea of the perfect body shape;
47 percent reported wanting to lose weight because of
magazine pictures.
- Media literacy enhances adolescents' abilities to
view ads with skepticism, making them more likely to
recognize persuasion techniques that advertisers use,
and distinguish whether ads are truthful or misleading.
- Clinique Laboratories, Inc. surveyed 500 moms of
teen daughters and found their number one New Year's
resolution was "lose weight/eat less." Yet 22 percent of
the same mothers list the fear of their daughters
developing an eating disorder among their top concerns.
Only 16 percent of the 500 teens interviewed in the same
survey worried about developing an eating disorder.
- Anecdotal evidence suggests that comments from make
family members trigger dieting, and teasing is
associated with weight-control attempts in adolescence.
- According to data presented to the National
Institutes of Health, 33-40 percent of adult women are
trying to lose weight at any given time-fueled by a
cultural perception of a feminine "ideal" that is much
too thin for good health.
- Girls with active and hardworking dads are more
ambitious, more successful in school, attend college
more often, and are more likely to attain careers of
their own. They are less dependent, more
self-protective, and less likely to date or marry
abusive men.
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