Media Influence on Youth

      BODY IMAGE

• In a recent survey by Teen People magazine, 27% of the girls felt that the media pressures them to have a perfect body.
• A 1996 poll conducted by Saatchi and Saatchi found that ads made women fear being unattractive or old.
• By the time a young person is 17 years old, they have received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media.
• 69% of girls in one study said that magazine models influence their idea of a perfect body shape.
• Many males are becoming insecure about their physical appearance as advertising and other media images raise the standard and idealize well-built men.
• Researchers are seeing an alarming increase in obsessive weight training and the use of anabolic steroids & dietary supplements that promise bigger muscles and more stamina for lifting.
• Studies are finding that boys, like girls, may turn to smoking to lose weigh.