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It’s not just a girl thing

Whether they’re longing for a slimmer waistline, pumped up biceps or washboard abs, feelings of body dissatisfaction are experienced by many teen girls and boys.
SYLVESTER STALLONE ROCKY
Researchers say boys are not immune to body image issues

TORONTO — Whether they’re longing for a slimmer waistline, pumped up biceps or washboard abs, feelings of body dissatisfaction are experienced by many teen girls and boys.

But is there a gender divide when it comes to efforts promoting healthy body images and self-esteem in young people?

U.S. researchers recently conducted a small study of male and female students at Boston-area high schools who tested the website BodiMojo. Featuring quizzes, games and interactive tools, the online health and wellness community — developed with input from adolescents — is designed to help prove nutrition, increase physical activity and promote positive body images among teens.

Some students were randomized to use BodiMojo over four weekly class periods and others participated in the standard health curriculum. The study revealed an apparent boost in body image for girls using the site — yet no measurable effect on boys.

“Our approach with BodiMojo was to really take what we call a psychosocial approach . . . to try to address the concerns that kids have — boys and girls — around body and fitting in and appearance and what other people think,” said BodiMojo founder Tara Cousineau, a clinical psychologist and study co-investigator.

“For whatever reason, kids who were exposed to the site, girls went right to that, and it makes sense because girls, I think, are really hypersensitive to issues surrounding their weight and how they look and what other people think about them. And with boys, I think that just — it appealed to them less.”

Boys did like aspects of the site involving physical activity and more sports-oriented elements, she noted.

“In a way, it fit the gender divide.”

Meanwhile, girls in particular liked the quizzes — a number of which asked about body image — in part because the answers are personalized with feedback tailored to how individuals respond to questions, said study co-investigator Debra Franko, a professor with the Bouve College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University.

Franko said that for some of the content, the researchers went into a different Boston-area high school where the program wasn’t tested and had students make videos about eating, physical activity, body image and sense of self.

Students in the research study seemed to like the interactive nature of components created by fellow teens.

“The Internet and mobile phone technology is really where teenagers spend so much of their time,” Franko said.

“If we can use that as a platform for doing these health-promoting kinds of things, then I think we’re all the better.”

“It’s hard to get them to do reading of books, but if they’re willing to sort of read things on websites and interact with web-based programs that speak to them in some way, they can connect.”

While much is made of the pressures on young women to fit within often-narrow body and beauty ideals perpetuated in media, researchers say young men aren’t immune to similar stressors.

“For boys, it’s more about not sexualizing them per se but more trying to grow them up into the ‘Be the man, be tough, be strong, be all that a man is supposed to be,”’ said Roberto Olivardia, a clinical psychologist and clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School.

“When you have a fit, muscular body that’s a representation of all masculinity is: being disciplined, being tough, being threatening, being dominant, being the alpha male, being attractive, being envied by other men and desired by women.”

Olivardia said for many boys, it’s not so much an issue of weight as it is shape and fitness.

“Even boys I’ve worked with with eating disorders who are more restrictive eaters or even more on the anorexic side . . . most of them don’t idealize being skinny per se, but they idealize being lean. And muscle is a huge component of boys’ body image, certainly much more so than what you see with girls.”

While influences come from multiple places, Olivardia said it’s hard to deny the impact and role of media in shaping boys’ body image.

In the 1980s, there was a rise in imagery depicting muscular men, with everything from G.I. Joe action figures to Calvin Klein ads and headlining movie stars of the era like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, said Olivardia, co-author of The Adonis Complex.

While there has been some lessening of the hyper-muscular ideal, that’s not to say it’s been abandoned altogether, he noted.

“Nowadays, for teenage boys, they walk into an Abercrombie and Fitch store and they are immediately greeted by an entire wall image of a young guy with perfect pecs and very muscular biceps, so the imagery is definitely much more intense than it even was 10 years ago.”

The Internet and social media sites are also fostering a more visual and instant gratification culture placing greater emphasis on appearance, he noted.

“You’re typing an email and nowadays your photo’s attached to it, or your Facebook account,” Olivardia said.

“There’s such an intense visual presence that I think boys and girls and men and women are all facing that pressure.”

Olivardia said parents need to be aware that issues surrounding body image can affect both boys and girls, and engage them in discussions early on in their development to help foster and nurture positive self-image and esteem.

“Their self-worth is tied not to the way they look, but to their traits and their values.”

Online: BodiMojo: www.bodimojo.com