The Predisposition Of Teenagers From The First High School Classes To Bodyshamming

Abstract

Body shaming is the act of saying something negative about one's own body or about another person's body. The aim of this research was to identify the predisposition of high school students in grades IX and X to body shaming, as a form of bullying and cyberbullying, through the use of digital technologies. The present study examined the propensity of young participants in bodyshaming research between April and May 2021. The method used was a sociological survey based on a questionnaire. The study was conducted with 1967 students from 15 different high schools in Caras-Severin County (Romania). The average age of the students included in the research was 16 years, 56.5% being female, 42.4 male, and 1.1% refused to specify their gender. The data was collected through an online questionnaire. The results obtained consisted in building a score that highlights the trend towards cyberbullying and body shaming, a score built on the significance of specific situations in which body shaming can manifest. The data obtained during the research show that the score regarding the tendency of high school students towards cyberbullying and body shaming differs depending on the gender of the respondents, the boys registering much higher scores of cyberbullying and body shaming, compared to their female colleagues.