Body image and social identity: How it affects obese female adolescents' self-esteem

• Main Authors: Fojas, Rossanna V., Montecillo, Joshua-Emmanuel P., Esguerra, Jillian Elaine D.G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2008
• Subjects: Body image; Body, Human > Social aspects; Beauty, Personal > Psychological aspects; Self-esteem; Stigma (Social psychology); Women > Psychology; Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6402
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study intended to find out whether the variables body image and social identity can cause change on the self esteem of twenty-four (24) obese female adolescent students of the De La Salle University - Manila. This quantitative research made use of a quasi-experiment in order to manipulate the target variables. Social identity was manipulated through establishing similarities within a group. On the other hand, body image was manipulated through exposure of the participant to either obese or slim individuals. A modified Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale was used to measure the dependent variable self-esteem. Results show that an interaction between the variables body image and social identity significantly increased the participants' self esteem. Research concludes that one's body image is enough to hinder the effects of positive social identity. Results also imply that positive body image is enough to increase significantly the self-esteem of the mentioned population even without positive social identity.