Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

In a society that promotes unrealistic body ideals it is challenging

to not get caught up in comparing oneself to these unrealistic

standards and complaining why do they have that type of body. This is

when body image comes in. Body image is how you view your

physical self --- including whether you feel attractive and whether others

like your looks. (Fernandez et. al., 2016, p.47) When a child goes through

the stage of puberty adolescence he/she becomes more aware of

him/herself in various aspects like for instance his/her body image.

Many studies and researches stated that teenage girls are more likely

conscious of their body image than the teenage boys. They are much

conscious of how they looks like in front of other people than boys

because of the ideals. Ideals that are frequently airbrushed. (Fernandez et.

al., 2016, p.47) Body image is like a mirror of oneself. Another thing, body

image is somehow also close and linked to self-esteem. Self-esteem is

all about how much you feel you are worth --- and how much you feel

other people value you. Self-esteem is important because feeling good

about yourself can affect your mental health and how you behave.

(Fernandez et. al., 2016, p.47). In this time where a teenage girl undergoes

many changes of her body it is not always easy to appreciate every

part of her body especially if there are many factors that affect a

person’s body image it could be social media/media, family/peers or

many more, but being always stuck on the negative side is not good at

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all. It could affect someone’s physical or mental state. That is what the

researchers aimed for in this study. The researchers want to know the

factors that affect the female students of Kasiglahan Village Senior High

School so that the researchers could help them to accept their own

body image.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to know the factors that leads the students of

KVSHS to have a body image that affects them in various ways,

personal or social.

Research Questions :

1. What are the factors that affect ideal figure?

2. What is/are the possible effect/s of having an ideal figure?

3. What is/are the purpose/s of having an ideal physique?

Significance of the Study

This study will serve as a help to the young female students of KVSHS

as well as other adolescents to deeply know themselves better and to help

them feel motivated in accepting their own flaws and imperfections.

Regardless of their differences, they should learn to accept and love

themselves. This research will aid the students who are experiencing self

doubts, insecurities. Students who have negative perception about their body.

The significance of this study to the other researcher/s is that this will serve as

their basis and help them to gather information and understand what is body

image is all about.

2
Scope and Delimitation

The researchers conducted this research to the girl students in Grade

11 and Grade 12 in all strands of Kasiglahan Village Senior High School. This

research was conducted on the final term of second semester of school year

2018-2019. The potential weaknesses of the study are : How to apply the

way/s to motivate the students because each person is different to each other;

The number and kind of factors that can be considered whereas that every

students have their own habits and behaviors.

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 Chapter 2
REVIEW OFTHE LITERATURE AND STUDIES

Related Literature

The article “Body Image of Women” (Farrar 2014) talks about entirely

the body image. It tackles about the causes of negative body image of

women, effects of poor body image and the author also addressed the

problems of having negative body image. According to the Farrar (2014) “It is

noticeable that the body size of women as portrayed in mass media has been

steadily getting smaller”. The advertising and marketing sector has been using

skinny or thin models to present their products showing to the customers that

being thin is the ideal beauty for women. This is referred to as thin-ideal

media. The thin-ideal media refers to images, films, shows that has thin

females as leads. The thin-ideal media promotes that being thinner is great

and is a desirable thing which affects most women by pushing them to do

some diet because being thin is the society’s epitome of beauty. This leads to

low self–esteem or confidence that affects their relationships with other

people or their social interaction, depression, anxiety or even triggering an

eating disorder especially if they have past or potential records of having one.

This effects were addressed by the author and gave some thoughts about

helping themselves to develop their self-esteem by focusing on their positive

traits and qualities. The influence of social media is undeniable. The number

of users of social media platforms is increasing for the past years till now.

Apparently, most of the users are young adolescent particularly women.

“Selfie-Esteem: The Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction and Social

Media in Adolescent and Young Women” (Makwana et.al n. d) highlight show

4
the social media affects the body image of the young adolescents. “Many

young women reported obsessing over the number of “likes” they were

getting, feared not looking beautiful in their photos, thought individuals would

think they looked different on social media than in real life, and questioned

what aspects of their life people would get a glimpse of.”(Farmer et al,

n.d).The article states that social media is linked to the body dissatisfaction of

young women in various ways. Women being too much inclined in social is

not a new issue knowing the fact that most of the contributors of social media

are women. Women usually takes a lot of time picking and thinking of a right

photo to upload in their social media sites and regularly checking how many

“likes” or “reacts” they are getting by the photo that they uploaded, which in

fact increases their own insecurities. “Even though many women were aware

of these actions, they were consumed by their need to fit in on social media

and struggled to disrupt their habits.” (Lee et. al, n.d). Number of women said

that their social media life is more important than their real life and they lived

with it. With these factors, it became a potential that social media somehow

affects the body dissatisfaction but until now it is still unclear if it really has

something to do with body dissatisfaction that also affects the body image.

5
Related Studies

The study conducted by Eivind Meland, Siren Haugland and Hans-

Johan Breidablik "Body image and perceived health in adolescence" (2006)

was based on Norwegian data from a World Health Organization cross-

national survey (Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children)among 5026

pupils aged 11, 13 and 15 years. The response rate was 76%."Adolescence is

a period of increased awareness of bodily cues and self-reflection, including

evaluation of body and appearance." (Meland et al, 2006)Such complaint

about their own body is increasing as they became aware of their own selves

and associated with self-evaluated or self-rated health."Self-rated health is

therefore an important health measure in adolescence.(Haugland et al, 2006)

The individual's evaluation of biological changes, health and illness is shaped

by socio-cultural and social–psychological factors.(Bredablik et al., 2006) It

could be the social roles of a person, the media or people around the

individual like the family and friends. In this study it states that previous

studies suggest that physical appearance and body image may influence

perceived health."In Western cultures, adolescents who depart from socially

determined norms of attractiveness or individual ideals are vulnerable to body

dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction may be defined as the discrepancy

between an individual's perceived current body size and perceived ideal body

size" (Meland et al., 2006). In this study it was stated that the body

dissatisfaction, negative body image, concern with body size and shape

shows the attitudinal aspects of body image and for this paper the body image

is defined as "the individual, subjective sense of satisfaction or dissatisfaction

with one's body or physical appearance." (Haugland et al., 2006)

6
Body image has been a hot topic for the past years. It is stated in "Weight

status and body image perceptions in adolescents: current perspectives" by

Dana K. Voelker, Justine J. Reel, and Christy Greenleaf that 90% studies

about body images had started ever since 1980. "Body image is a

multidimensional construct encompassing how we perceive, think, feel, and

act toward our bodies and lies on a continuum from healthy body perceptions

(i.e., accurate and mostly positive) to unhealthy body perceptions (i.e.,

inaccurate and mostly negative).(Greenleaf et al., 2015). Body image is one of

the things that is being developed in adolescence. Adolescence represents a

critical period for healthy body image development due to the type and

magnitude of age-related transitions occurring during this time. (Reel et al.,

2015)As an individual goes to the phase called "Adolescence" the individual

becomes more aware of his body and much more conscious of what he looks

like in front of other people. Another thing, body image has “developmental

significance” such that it is not a static personal characteristic, but rather a

dynamic aspect of ourselves that changes over the lifespan. (Voelker et al.,

2015). Usually, this started in the stage where the individual is on his teenage

years just like what have mentioned earlier. A variety of cultural, social,

physical, and psychological changes that characterize adolescence uniquely

interact to shape body image between the ages of 12 years and 18 years. Our

appearance-oriented culture often targets teens as potential consumers and

has a significant negative impact on their body image. (Greenleaf et al.,

2015)It was mentioned in this statement that there are many attributes that

affect the body image of a person, specifically in a negative way. It was also

mentioned in this research that dieting, exercise and beauty trends in

7
televisions and social media sites drastically has some effects on the negative

perception on the young adults. These cultural ideals and beliefs are also

reinforced by significant others in adolescents’ immediate environments,

including family, peers, and romantic partners. (Reel et al., 2015). Importantly,

the influence of body ideals interacts with a critical period of physical change

during adolescence as well. Specifically, the changes that occur during

puberty are among the most rapid and diverse in human development,

including changes in weight, height, body shape, body composition, as well as

primary and secondary sex characteristics. (Voelker et al., 2015) This

research states that from a psychological perspective, adolescence has been

identified as a period of identity development in which they explore possible

selves and make significant life decisions that inform aspects of their lives,

including ideological (i e, occupation, religion, politics, values) and

interpersonal domains (i e, family, friendships, romantic partnerships, and

gender roles). Although an underexplored area, preliminary evidence

suggests that these identity development processes are linked to body image.

(Green leaf et al., 2015).

8
 Conceptual Framework

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

OUTPUT
INPUT PROCESS
Factors that Affects
1. What are the 1. Interview
the Ideal Physique of
factors that 2. Observation
Female Students of
affect the ideal 3. Books/
KVSHS
figure? Article/
Studies
2. What is/are 4. Qualitative
the possible data analysis
effect/s of
having an
ideal figure?

3. What is/are
the purpose/s
of having an
ideal figure?

This diagram shows the sequence on how to conduct are search. For

its basic, IPO stands for input, process, and output where on the input shows

the research questions of the study that should be answered in the research,

in these questions also the study will be focused and followed by its

process, basically process are the ways how the researchers find data for

their study including the interview questionnaire, observation on the

respondents and gathering data from others sources like books and articles

and the output is the outcome created on the topic that we made.

9
Definition of Terms:

Adolescent - in the process of developing from child into an adult.

BMI (Body Mass Index) - a person's weight in kilograms (kg) divided his/her

weight in meter squared.

Body Image - the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body.

Physical self - is the concrete dimension, the tangible aspect of the person

that can be directly observed and examined.

Physique - is a word use to describe the form of the shape of the human

body.

Selfie-Esteem – relationship between body dissatisfaction and Social Media.

Epitome – a person or thing that is a perfect example of a particular quality or

type.

SocMed (Social Media) - websites and applications that enable users to

create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Norm - something that is usual, typical, or standard.

Drastically – in a way that is likely to have a strong or far-reaching effect.

Puberty - the period during which adolescents reach sexual maturity and

become capable of reproduction.

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 Chapter 3
METHODOLOGY

Research Design

This research is a Phenomenological type of qualitative research

which tackles about the natural phenomena that happens to the daily

basis of people. Body image or thinking how you look like is a natural

thing for every people. That is one of the reasons why the researchers

choose this design. Aside from that, this kind of design is good for

qualitative research for this gets the views and personal comments

directly from the respondents. Getting the respondent’s own experiences

and perceptions could really help the study. Knowing the personal

thoughts of a person could be a help to describe and distinguish a

certain group or people.

The Sample

The researchers will use Purposive or Judgemental Sampling for this

research. The researchers will select only the girls in the population of

Kasiglahan Village Senior High School. The girls in both Grade 11 and

Grade-12 are the respondents of the study particularly the teenage girls

from section A’s. These will be Grade 11 STEM A, ABM A, GAS A, ICT A

and HUMMS A. In Grade 12, ABM A, HUMMS A, GAS A, ICT A and

HUMMS A. Conducting a research with these purposely selected students

will result into a good and reliable data and information that will be

needed for the completion and success of this research.

11
The Instrument(s)

Directions: Answer the questions on the space provided.

1. What is your ideal figure? Why?

2. What/Who influence/s your ideal figure? Why?

3. Are you satisfied with your present body? Why or why not?

4. Do you use any beauty product/s and what for?

5. Does using cosmetics helps you in what way?

6. Does your culture or society affect your body image? How?

7. Have you ever felt insecure to others? Why?

8. Do you ever experience depression, anxiety or stress for not

achieving your body goals?

9. Are you doing exercises or diets? How often? Is it effective or not?

How do you say so?

10. Do you want to gain or boost your confidence and be accepted by

your friends, family or society? If yes, in what way/s?

12
Data Collection Procedure

An interview questionnaire will be used for this research. The

researchers will ask the permission of the girls in Grade 11 and Grade 12

from section A’s to be the respondents of the research. They will be asked

about their own personal perceptions and thoughts about their own ideal

figure. The researchers will also ask permission from teachers to allow

them to interview the students. The researchers will distribute the

questionnaire on the free time or breaks of the students or if they don’t

have any teacher around.

Plan for Data Analysis

A plan for this research is qualitative data analysis. Since this is a

qualitative data analysis, the researchers will interview the respondents to get

their own personal opinions, thoughts, feelings for the questions that were

asked. The researchers will analyze the answers of the respondents to figure

out if the research questions were answered and that if there is added new

data and information to the research based from their answers. Getting the

data and information from them could really help the researchers to know if

the research questions were answered and what are those answers for the

questions. Observing the students and getting the respondents perspectives

by interviewing them are one of the key to accomplish the research.

13
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