Body Weight Concerns among Urban Adolescent Girls: A Microlevel Study

Abstract

Growing consciousness about ideal body image leads to dietary modifications and consequent eating disorders among girls in developing countries like India. The present study aims to (i) assess the prevalence of body weight consciousness and related behaviours among a group of adolescent girls; (ii) assess the sociodemographic correlates of weight related behaviours; and (iii) compare weight related behaviours of the girls of two religious groups residing in Howrah. The study is the outcome of a crosssectional school based survey involving 280 (159 Hindu and 121 Muslim) girls from standards 8 to 11. Significant differences exist between two religious groups with respect to their family size, socioeconomic profile, and media exposures (in terms of watching television). Consciousness about body weight among girls shows significant difference with respect to religion, family size ( 2 = 64.77), father's occupation ( 2 = 60.28), level of education of both the parents, and media exposure ( < 0.05). Consciousness about body weight drives them to adopt several behavioural measures like calorie restriction, food avoidance, and dieting. Sociodemographic correlates of all these behaviours have been analyzed. The study documents that concern over body image and weight loss is quite important among these urban girls.

A body-image based media literacy intervention for Indian adolescent females

“…Like young people all over the world, the youth in India are likely to pay close attention to media images and be influenced by them [12]. Media habits have been identified as one of the most important factors shaping the weight related behaviours of adolescent Indian females [13]. However people are not always cognizant of the 51 consequences of media exposure.…”

Eating disorder/and or eating behavior researches from West Bengal, India: Suppressing the facts??

“…However, the research article 27 surprisingly overlooked the earlier research efforts regarding genetic variation to body weight and body shape. At the same time consecutive publications 19,23,24,26,28 on this urgent area unfortunately made too much over simplified and misleading related to unhealthy diet and not provided any rightful appreciation of the above mentioned genetic contributions and contravened the publication ethics.…”