News Lifestyle Peer pressure influences body image of girls

Peer pressure influences body image of girls

Washington: Surprisingly, peers exert a greater influence on teenaged girls' body images than do reed thin models that flash on TV screens, says a new study.The influence of the media on body image, life satisfaction,



On the whole, neither TV exposure to thin ideals nor social media use predicted body dissatisfaction, whereas peer competition did.

Similarly, TV exposure and social media use did not predict eating disorder symptoms.

The authors concluded: "Our results suggest that only peer competition, not television or social media use, predict negative outcomes for body image. This suggests that peer competition is more salient to body and eating issues in teenage girls."