Individual and Sociocultural Influences on Pre-Adolescent Girls’ Appearance Schemas and Body Dissatisfaction

Appearance schemas, a suggested cognitive component of body image, have been associated with body dissatisfaction in adolescent and adult samples. This study examined girls’ weight status (BMI), depression, and parent, sibling, peer, and media influences as predictors of appearance schemas in 173 pre-adolescent girls. Hierarchical regression results indicated that appearance schemas scores were associated with girls’ level of depression, perceptions of parental influence on weight concerns, appearance related interactions with other girls, and awareness of media messages; perceptions of sibling influence on weight concerns and BMI were not independent predictors. In addition, appearance schemas were associated with girls’ level of body dissatisfaction. One implication of these findings is for prevention programs to focus on reducing the importance and value that girls place on appearance by targeting social influences, particularly parental influence, in order to reduce risk for adolescent body dissatisfaction and related risk behaviors.Doctoral candidate in Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are the development of disordered eating and body dissatisfaction from middle childhood through adolescence.Distinguished professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests are child and adolescent eating behavior.     

A Longitudinal Study of Body Change Strategies Among Adolescent Males

This study was designed to examine the factors predicting a range of body change strategies among adolescent males over an 8-month time period. This is the first published longitudinal study of body change strategies to increase weight and muscles among males. The 5 body change strategies in the present study were eating and exercise to lose weight, increase weight, increase muscles, bingeing, and use of food supplements. The extent to which Body Mass Index (BMI) and these body change strategies predicted each other over an 8-month period was evaluated. The role of pressure from parents and peers to lose weight, increase weight, or increase muscles was also evaluated. After controlling for the Time 1 level of each variable, only bingeing, and use of food supplements were predicted by other Time 1 body change variables. Bingeing at Time 1, and a combination of all of the other variables predicted bingeing at Time 2; use of food supplements and bingeing at Time 1 predicted the use of food supplements at Time 2. Perceived pressure from parents and peers to lose weight at Time 1 predicted strategies to lose weight at Time 2; perceived pressure from parents and peers to increase weight at Time 1 predicted strategies to increase weight at Time 2; and perceived pressure to lose weight, increase weight, and increase muscles at Time 1 predicted the use of food supplements at Time 2. These results indicate that extreme body change strategies are predicted by the adoption of more normative body change strategies at an earlier point in time, and that a range of body change strategies among adolescent males are affected by perceived pressures from parents and peers.     

The Effect of “Thin Ideal” Television Commercials on Body Dissatisfaction and Schema Activation During Early Adolescence

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of viewing televised images of female attractiveness on the body dissatisfaction of young adolescent girls and boys. Adolescents (160 females and 197 males) aged 13–15 years viewed either 20 commercials containing idealized female thin images or 20 nonappearance television commercials. Body dissatisfaction was measured before (Time 1), immediately following (Time 2), and 15 min after (Time 3) commercial viewing. Appearance-schema activation was assessed using a word-stem completion task. Girls, but not boys, who viewed the appearance commercials reported significantly higher body dissatisfaction at both Times 2 and 3 compared with the nonappearance condition. Participant age had no effect. Both girls and boys in the appearance condition reported greater schema activation, but appearance schematicity did not moderate the commercial effect. The results support the general hypothesis that televised images of attractiveness lead to increased body dissatisfaction and schema activation for girls as young as 13 years old.     

Communicating sociocultural norms and social and religious practices in Iranian death notices

Drawing on a corpus of 100 randomly collected death notices published in an Iranian national newspaper, this study examined generic structures as well as their lexico-grammatical patterning to reveal what communicative functions are articulated by these generic components. Basing our identification of moves on Swales [1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], we identified 12 rhetorical moves in the corpus. We illustrated that these recurrent rhetorical moves reflect the Iranian sociocultural norms, as well as social and religious beliefs. Also, the results substantiated [Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge] multimodality perspective on textual analysis in that they rejected linguistic items as the only meaning-making device and identified colour, position, photo and size, among others, as worthwhile veritable semiotic devices.     

The Imperative for Building Value Reciprocity Between Society and City Hall: Implications for Local Government Ethics Building in Serbia and Montenegro

Beyond the role of providing public goods, local public organizations contribute to the governance process by influencing social inclusion and development (Brinkerhoff, 2008 Brinkerhoff, D. W. 2008. The State and international development management: Shifting tides, changing boundaries, and future directions. Public Administration Review, 68(6): 985–1001. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Democracy building needs citizen input and accountability to ensure legitimization by society. Using survey data from public managers in local governments in Serbia and Montenegro, this study provides an analysis of the state of ethical systems in local governments. Organizational law and order were found to be the primary ethical focus while ethical outcomes often neglect social needs. Conclusions reveal that clear linkages between society and local public organizations can establish sustainable ethical behavior among local government managers.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of the Development of Weight and Muscle Concerns Among Preadolescent Boys

The study examined the impact of body mass index (BMI), negative affect, self-esteem, and sociocultural influences in the development of weight and muscle concerns among preadolescent boys. Body dissatisfaction, importance placed on weight and muscles, weight loss strategies, and strategies to increase muscles were evaluated. Participants were 237 boys aged between 8 and 11 years who were tested at three assessment periods 8 months apart. The main predictor of boys’ body change strategies was their perceived pressures to modify weight and muscles from parents, peers, and the media. The other main predictor of boys’ body change strategies and the sole predictor of body dissatisfaction was BMI. Self-esteem and negative affect were found to be weak and generally nonsignificant predictors of boys’ body image concerns and body change strategies. Additional studies that examine the risk and protective factors associated with boys’ weight and muscle concerns are needed to assist in the development of prevention programs for preadolescent boys.Lina Ricciardelli is an Associate Professor at Deakin University. She received her PhD in 1990 from the University of Adelaide, Australia. Her research interests are body image concerns, disordered eating and substance abuse among youth.Marita McCabe is a Professor at Deakin University. She received her PhD in 1981 from Macquarie University, Australia. Her research interests are in body image across the lifespan, sexuality, and chronic illnessJess Lillis is graduate student at Deakin University, She completed her undergraduate work in 2000 at Deakin University, Her research interests are body image concerns and negative affect among youthResearch Fellow at Deakin University, She received her D Psych in 2000 from Deakin University, Her interests are in disordered eating and depression among adolescents     

Improving psychosocial well-being of child laborers and young people who are engaged in low-income economic activities in Istanbul,Turkey

Child laborers are typically subjected to multiple and chronic traumatic experiences. With no parents or caregivers to act as a buffer zone against stressors, they grow up in chaotic and unpredictable work environments. Child laborers are more at risk of developing a range of psychological, emotional, and behavioral problems. The authors established an 8-month psychosocial support program for child laborers and young people attending a vocational training center one day a week. The authors found that anxiety and depression moderately correlated with negative self-concept, somatization, and hostility. Toward the end of the 8-month program, participants reported improved psychological and emotional well-being. The provision of a safe and mediated psychosocial program enhanced the emotional and mental well-being of vulnerable children and young people.     

Intergenerational Communities

Abstract

The authors argue for intergenerational programs based on two contemporary orientations to teaching and learning: constructiv-ist and sociocultural. They provide examples of school-based intra- and inter-generational activities that challenge conventional notions about the capabilities of young children and speak to the learning benefits of collaborative decision-making. The authors offer several specific guidelines for intergenerational program developers and researchers that focus on assessing the learning potential of intergenerational initiatives. They also recommend case studies and participatory research approaches as particularly useful for gaining insight into intergenerational learning processes.     

Reasons for Victims’ Nonreporting Practices in Lagos,Nigeria: A Qualitative Study

Nonreporting practices have significant effects on public safety, yet the scientific community knows little about the reasons that predispose victims towards nonreporting in Lagos, Nigeria. The author examined the reasons using qualitative methods, and used a purposive sampling technique to select participants. Data were content analyzed. The findings indicated that economic and sociocultural considerations account for nonreporting among victims. The study concluded that numerous economic and sociocultural reasons including poverty, police extortion, and taboos explain nonreporting among victims, and suggests that the government should strengthen families and schools to transmit reporting values to children for safer communities in Lagos, Nigeria.     

Socio-cultural aspects of the relationship between the EU and East Asia, with particular reference to China

This paper presents a comparative study about words and about sovereignty; about the ancestry of the words that construct the discourse of sovereignty in the context of China; about the analysis and interpretation of the civic discourse and the rhetoric that construct Chinese sovereignty in the field of international relations and foreign policy, and about the consequences of this analysis and interpretation for the formulation of EU foreign policy with regard to East Asia, especially China, and the United States, as well as the feedback that notions of sovereignty have on the construction of Chinese civic discourse. For many contemporary Chinese thinkers, China should modernise without repeating the process of modernism, should leap over the system of values established by the Enlightenment that seemed to justify imperialism, and develop an economy and institutions that would serve to create wealth and to raise the standard of living of the population, without imposing values that are advantageous to a “West” that is already wealthy. They have identified a cultural dissidence within developed societies that advocates the values of postmodernism as a way of rejecting the values of modernism. In this context, they advocate the possibility of modernising their society without having to accept the imposition of values that originated in societies that have already begun to question them. In this way, China could reach postmodernism in a relatively short period of history without having to pass through the traumas that characterised the development of modernism in the “West” over a period of centuries (it would be difficult not to discern echoes of Mao Zedong’s “Great Leap Forward” in these Chinese versions of the postmodernist paradigm). The communicative strategy to be adopted by the EU in the rhetorical construction of its dialogue with China should be fully cognizant of and sensitive to the criteria of China’s moral order as outlined in this study and specified in the Five Principles (mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; non-aggression; non-interference in each other’s internal affairs; equality and mutual benefit; and peaceful coexistence), the Spirit of Shanghai and the ASEAN Way, with special emphasis on mutual recognition, parity of esteem, and mutual benefit. Any other discourse will be perceived semiotically as unilateralist and exploitative. Respect for diversity is paramount, and the ability to harmonise diversity is a major function of Chinese political and cultural thought. “Harmony” and “peace” are the same word in classical Chinese: hé ( hépíng is the modern word for “peace” and héshēng is the modern word for “harmony”). As a result, any practice that produced harmony, such as music or cooking, was a form of training for maintaining peace, social cohesion and solidarity in society (or among nations).