THE IMPACT OF THE MEDIA ON BODY IMAGE PERCEPTIONSAND SELF-ESTEEM AMONG FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Authors

GAMAL MEGAHED Assistant Professor, Mass Communication Department, Faculty of Human Sciences, Beirut Arab University, LebanonFollow

Keywords

الإعلام، السلوك الصحي، طلاب الجامعة، لبنان

Disciplines

Architecture | Business | Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

University students nowadays face a number of daily challenges. To meet the standards set by the media and other socio-economic influences causes many of them to feel vulnerable and confused. This sense of failure and the decrease in self-esteem often lead students to focus on their personal image, which in turn causes them to seek physical and mental changes. To adapt to a new environment, it is therefore essential to understand what affects an individual in their daily life, as this determines their response to this new environment. In most countries, it is the mothers, female friends and the media who form the most powerful influence on the image of the self and the body image among girls. There is no doubt that the dissatisfaction with the body image is one of the most prevalent problems in society. A large percentage of female university students suffer from severe forms of dissatisfaction with their general appearance, which has become associated with chronic dieting, eating disorders and lowered levels of self-esteem. A number of studies have established that the media plays a major role in determining the ideal body image for adolescents. It is the most powerful conveyer of socio-cultural ideals, since it not only presents recurrently unrealistic images of thinness, but also provides information on how to achieve these ideals. Although there are a large number of studies that have dealt with the impact of media on the perceptions of and dissatisfaction with the body image, usually among females, yet only few of these have examined the impact of the media on boy image perceptions among female university students, in particular in Arab societies such as Lebanon. It is, thus, necessary to conduct this study, in particular in the light of the growing role played by the media in our societies. With the increasing freedom of the media in the Arab World during the last few years, it becomes adamant to evaluate the various roles it plays. The Sample of the Study: The study recruited a sample of 200 female students at Beirut Arab University, who were equally distributed across the faculties of the humanities and the scientific faculties. Instruments of the Study: Three variables were tackled:  The body image, using the Body Image Scale, developed by Alaa Kafafi & Mayssah El Nayal.  Self-esteem, using the Rosenberg Scale (1989), translated by Ahmed Abdel-Khalek.  The media, using a questionnaire with a number of questions that establish the relationship between the respondent and the media.

Recommended Citation

MEGAHED, GAMAL Assistant Professor, Mass Communication Department, Faculty of Human Sciences (2018) "THE IMPACT OF THE MEDIA ON BODY IMAGE PERCEPTIONSAND SELF-ESTEEM AMONG FEMALE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS," BAU Journal - Health and Wellbeing: Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 54.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54729/2789-8288.1106