The rationale for these interventions is that low self-esteem has been shown to predict negative body image, and thus, by improving how individuals feel about their overall worth, body image should improve as well. Examples of techniques used in media literacy interventions include educating individuals about the biased notion of beauty ideals that is perpetuated by the media and teaching strategies to reduce exposure to appearance-focused media.Īnother set of interventions is designed to enhance self-esteem. In doing so, these images and messages are discredited and consequently their influence on body image should be reduced. The aim of media literacy interventions is to teach individuals to critically evaluate and challenge the images (e.g., of underweight women) and messages (e.g., that thin is beautiful) disseminated by the media that can cause negative body image. Fitness training interventions may also improve body image by encouraging individuals to focus more on the functionality of their body and less on their appearance, or by increasing their sense of self-efficacy. Instead, it appears that perceived improvements in physical capacities may play a more important role. Interestingly, objective improvements in fitness obtained by such interventions are inconsistently related to changes in body image. Fitness training interventions include aerobic or anaerobic activities geared at improving physical capacities (e.g., muscular strength). Other interventions for improving body image can broadly be divided into four categories: fitness training, media literacy, self-esteem enhancement, and psychoeducation. To achieve these improvements, a variety of cognitive and behavioural change techniques are used such as self-monitoring, cognitive restructuring, and exposure exercises. Broadly speaking, CBT aims to help individuals to modify dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that contribute to negative body image. The most prominent of these interventions is cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). Given the associations between negative body image, psychological problems, and unhealthy behaviours, a large number of interventions have been designed to improve body image. Interventions Designed to Improve Body Image For instance, negative body image predicts physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, and weight gain, and is associated with unsafe sex, smoking, and skin cancer risk behaviours. In addition, negative body image has serious consequences for health behaviours. Negative body image contributes to the development and maintenance of body dysmorphic disorder and eating disorders, and is associated with low self-esteem, depression, social anxiety, and impaired sexual functioning. In adults, approximately 60% of women and 40% of men have a negative body image, and these rates remain stable across the lifespan. Approximately 50% of preadolescent girls and 30% of preadolescent boys dislike their body. Studies have shown that negative body image can emerge in childhood. Negative body image is expressed in one or more of the components of body image and is often characterised by a dissatisfaction with appearance and engaging in behaviours such as frequent self-weighing or mirror checking, or avoidance of public situations. Body image is a multifaceted construct, consisting of cognitive and affective components (i.e., how people think and feel about their body), perceptual components (i.e., how people perceive the size and shape of their body and body parts), and behavioural components (i.e., the actions that people perform for the purpose of checking on, tending to, altering, or concealing their body). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.īody image is the subjective “picture” that people have of their own body, regardless of how their body actually looks. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.įunding: The contribution of JMA was supported by NWO (The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research grant 404-10-118: Novel strategies to enhance body satisfaction, awarded to CM. Received: JAccepted: SeptemPublished: September 29, 2015Ĭopyright: © 2015 Alleva et al. Tovée, Newcastle University, UNITED KINGDOM Citation: Alleva JM, Sheeran P, Webb TL, Martijn C, Miles E (2015) A Meta-Analytic Review of Stand-Alone Interventions to Improve Body Image.
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