Are Your Bathroom Scales Weighing Heavily On Your Mind?

Document Type

Other

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Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

5.9 OTHER SOCIAL SCIENCES

Publication Details

RTE Brainstorm, Updated / Thursday, 1 Jul 2021 16:02

Abstract

As a nation, we appear to have become obsessed with weighing ourselves. This behaviour is further normalised by living in a culture where our self-esteem and self-worth appear to be determined and reinforced by presenting the perfect outward appearance. While the consequences of obesity are recognised internationally as a major health concern, we instead appear to be aspiring to ever skinnier ideals instead of striving for healthy body and minds. The mismatch between one’s current shape and one’s ideal shape leads to widespread body dissatisfaction, which can trigger internal anxiety and increase our levels of stress with researchers identifying skinny ideology as a predictor of low self-esteem, low self-efficacy and depression.

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