As a teen, feeling good about the way you look can boost your confidence and make you see yourself in a positive way. A positive body image allows you to have a strong respect for your body, be comfortable with your own skills, and feel confident in your appearance.
A positive body image helps you feel motivated to live a healthy life, enhances your self-esteem, and builds resilience against physical appearance stereotypes.
This article will discuss the impact of peer pressure on self-esteem and body satisfaction, provide strategies for resisting negative pressures and cultivate self-acceptance.
What is Peer Pressure?
Peer pressure refers to the internal or external pressure, both positive and negative, to behave in a particular way. Peer pressure intensifies during adolescence, spanning junior high and high school, starting as early as age 10, when students in elementary school create social groupings.
Peer pressure is especially powerful during the beginning of adolescence because of hormonal changes, brain development, and identity development. Additionally, at this point in life, friendship groups are crucial, and the desire to fit in plays a big role in decision-making.
What is Body Image?
Over several years, the popular obsession with body image has grown and today it is more pronounced than at any time in the past. This is a result of codes of fashion, beauty, and popular culture that have taken over an individual's perception of how they view their body and have released a widespread crisis in body confidence.
The fact is, no matter what you look like or how you feel about your appearance, the way you perceive yourself in your mind's eye is your body image and influences your feelings and thoughts about the way you look and feel. Developing a positive body image during adolescence is important.
A Body-Positive Workbook ($90) can be of help in this regard; it will help you develop a positive body image and self-esteem. A low body image can damage a teenager's self-esteem and lead them into debts caused by trying to obtain the perfect body by using various methods, such as dieting or plastic surgery.
The term body image applies to a complex relationship between the person who looks at his or her body and how the person perceives, thinks, imagines, is aware of, judges, wants to change, or is surprised by their body. There is no norm when it comes to body image.
The pressures of fashion, advertising, and entertainment media significantly impact and shape it, while each person's unique life experiences also play a role in its evolution.
Body images are not simple expressions of beauty but compound constructs that reflect the ways that individuals embody and integrate personal, social, and cultural meanings about gender, race, and sexuality, tastes, class, ability, and well-being in their lives. Body images are expressions of the connection of body satisfaction, well-being, individual identity, and the notion of identification.
Impact of peer influences on self-esteem and body image
Every individual may experience peer pressure in a different way. Peer pressure can capitalize on an adolescent's preexisting talents or difficulties. A confident, outgoing teen may be more likely to provide for and receive good peer pressure, whereas a low-confidence teen with few close friends may be more vulnerable to the negative impacts of social pressure.
Self-esteem
Negative peer pressure or influence can be detrimental to your sense of self-esteem. Sometimes you start to have problems with your self-confidence and find yourself unhealthily reliant on your peers.
A major problem that can affect you in many ways is low self-esteem. Adolescents with poor self-esteem could be unduly harsh and too self-critical.
If you have low self-esteem, you could find it easier to dwell on your mistakes than your accomplishments, or you might be too self-conscious to try at all. Teens with low self-esteem may not stand up for themselves, allowing other teenagers or adults to mistreat them, and they may find it difficult to deal with failure or mistakes.
However, teenagers are not the only ones affected by low self-esteem; adults also experience it, as children may still struggle with difficulties related to their self-worth.
Positive peer pressure, on the other hand, can genuinely improve your self-esteem. Being surrounded by upbeat, considerate, and supportive friends can significantly boost your self-esteem. It's preferable and advised to surround oneself with individuals who will boost your self-esteem and confidence. A confidence-boosting fashion guide ($95) can also help you develop a personal style that makes you feel confident and expressive.
Body Image
Peer pressure has a negative effect on body image in a number of ways. Peers, for example, may criticize, compare, mock, and make negative comments about your looks when you're out in public. They may also put pressure on you to change the way you look. All of these behaviors have the potential to increase feelings of uncertainty and shame, as well as self-doubt.
Additionally, poor lifestyle choices and behaviors, including substance misuse, dieting, and excessive exercise, can be influenced by peer pressure. The quality of both physical and mental health significantly declines as a result of these behaviors.
When you're around peers who accept you for who you are, and don't care about your physical appearance, you're likely to feel happier with your body and eat more intuitively. Also, when they speak positively about their own bodies, this will make you feel secure about your own physical appearance.
In conclusion, it's better that you only spend time with people who support you and make you feel good alone, while also being supportive of them, This will make everybody feel good.
5 strategies for resisting negative peer pressures
Negative peer pressure is a big deal for teenagers. Even if you find yourself resisting at first, you might end up giving in. Learn how to resist negative peer pressures and live on your own terms. These are some tips for resisting peer pressure.
Ask for extra time to consider the demands made by your peers.
You might choose not to do it if you have more time to consider it. It's common for peers to try to pressure you into making decisions quickly. However, giving yourself some space to think about it or have a conversation about it can help you take your time and prevent you from reacting hastily or impulsively.
Make up a reason or a plan of escape
Anyone your age can comprehend the guidelines or expectations set by a parent. Don't be scared to place the blame for your need for a curfew on your mother for being overly protective. Nobody has to be aware that this might not be the case.
Offer a better suggestion.
Offer an alternative to your peers if they are forcing you to do something you don't want to. Even though you can't control how your friends behave, you always have the option to inform them that you'll be leaving them to do whatever they want to do without you or to suggest another plan.
Say "no" confidently.
Don’t stutter or give someone else a hard time understanding what you’re saying. Make your message understandable and easy to hear. To make it feel natural to speak in an emergency, practice saying it when you don't need to.
Assess whether your colleagues are positive examples to follow
Determine whether your peers are good or detrimental influences in your life by evaluating your friendship. It might be time to think about making new friends if the negative outweighs the positive.
Cultivating self-acceptance
Self acceptance is simply the process of accepting yourself completely—your good qualities, flaws, successes and short comings. It's all about acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses, and recognizing that they're not attached to your worth.
Most people are generally focused on who they think they should be, but the practice of self-acceptance is seeing inherent value in who you are now. This does not mean you should not look to improve, rather you shouldn't wait to be perfect to celebrate yourself.
Self acceptance is the foundation for self-love
When you acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses, without conditions, you'll find it much easier to have deep sense of love and warmth for yourself. Below are ways in which you can practice self-acceptance
Celebrate all that you are and where you're at
It's easy to see people's achievement and classify it as our own failures because we don't have the same achievement. But life really isn't a race; if it were, it'd be chaotic, so instead of dwelling on other's achievements, celebrate where you are.
Be your own best friend
You wouldn't be angry or frustrated at a friend when they were in a bad place. In a way, put yourself in a friend's shoes and react the same way you'd react when they're struggling. Speak kindly to yourself, nurture your mind and work on becoming your own best friend.
Speak to yourself kindly
We speak to ourselves in our minds more than we speak to anyone else. Unfortunately, this self-talk is more discouraging than it is positive. If you're used to criticizing yourself, consciously reframe the way you speak to yourself using Self-love affirmation cards about ($80) to help cultivate self acceptance.
Learning to be okay with all your strengths and weaknesses can be hard, but with practice, you can learn the art of self-acceptance.
Conclusion
Remember, building a Positive Body image takes time and effort, but with the right strategies and support, you can learn to love yourself for who you are.
Sources
- The Role of Peer Pressure in Shaping Perceptions
- Ways to Accept Yourself
- How Do Our Relationships Influence Body Image?
- 5 Ways to Resist Peer Pressure: Standing Up to Your Peers
- Helping Teens Deal with Peer Pressure