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Dieting Young People's Dieting Behaviors Thesis

This is the first step in making diets for young people more realistic, achievable and more aimed at health and less about perpetually attempting to win favor with peers. Second, educational and awareness programs need to concentrate on assisting young people to see the value of themselves as innately who they are. The use of Myers-Briggs personality tests to assist young girls with the discovery of their innate strengths and abilities in addition to tests to capture their innate cognitive abilities would give them an opportunity to see themselves more in a holistic perspective of total abilities. This would get them out of seeing their values only in the context of their image or appearance. As the cases in Argentina indicate, the valuation of beauty as a proxy for competence dominates their culture (Ballve, 2006) yet does not produce any increase in women who have advanced degrees or seek PhDs in universities in-country or in foreign nations' educational institutions.

Instead of allowing diet to be the focal point of a young persons' life the balance of their appearance and their innate intellectual skills needs to be achieved. This can also be accomplished through programs that are created, launched and maintained in guidance counseling sessions in middle school and high school. In addition parents need to be given these specific insights and given assistance in helping their young children, middle schoolers and high schoolers to see their value not just from their appareance but from their ability to use their innate strengths as well. Only by creating programs such as these will young people, specifically young girls, be able to break out of a cycle of continually seeking their value in the context of how others see themselves rather than how they see themselves. The need for a program that can motivate parents to also provide the necessary support to bolster their confidence is also critically important. Earlier in this analysis it was mentioned how critically important the role of immediate family members are in the creation of consistent self-image. This needs to be brought to the forefront of parent' lives so they can continually assist their children to see their innate value beyond merely appearance. Conversely the need to show how to have a healthy diet and stay away from the high-fat convenience fast foods that do little to deliver nutritional value also need to be underscored as well. Only by creating a program that can accomplish this objective on a national basis can the obesity epidemic that is beginning to become prevalent with teenagers on the one hand and the role of destructive dieting on the other be overcome. Truly moderation of these two opposite ends of the extreme is critically important for young people to see themselves as innately valuable and talented.

Conclusion

The role of social networks, those of the family and extended family kind, have the greatest impact on children today and their self-image regarding dieting, and their propensity to accept themselves or not (French, Story, Downes, Resnick, Blum,1995). The lack of these family and extended family networks conversely can lead to extreme dieting becoming a proxy or crutch for the lack of confidence...

For a young person to have a healthy frame of reference relative to their dieting they need to also have a strong social network providing them assurance of their value and self-worth. The role of electronic social networks (Bernoff, Li, 2008) has been successful in creating networks of young people, specifically girls, who face these challenges. Yet in the end there is no substitute for a strong family base or at least an extended group of friends, many of them adults, reaffirming and giving support to a young person as to their innate value. Not relying purely on appearance and instead assisting them to find their innate strengths beyond appearance for perspective to be maintained is key.
References

Marcelo Ballve. (2006, November). A Model Society. Psychology Today,

39(6), 19.

Bennett, J.. (2009). A focus on child weight management. Practice Nurse,

37(2), 36-37.

Bernoff, J., & Li, C.. (2008). Harnessing the Power of the Oh-So-Social Web. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(3), 36-42.

Hayley K. Dohnt, & Marika Tiggemann. (2006). Body Image Concerns in Young Girls: The Role of Peers and Media Prior to Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(2), 135-145.

Haveman, Robert, Wolfe, Barbara, & Spaulding, James. (1991). Childhood Events and Circumstances Influencing High School Completion. Demography, 28(1), 133.

Herscovici, C., & Bay, L. (1996, March). Favorable outcome for anorexia nervosa patients treated in Argentina with a family approach. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, 4(1), 59-66.

Geert Hofstede. (1998). Identifying organizational subcultures: An empirical approach. The Journal of Management Studies, 35(1), 1-12.

Juliska Kansi, Lars Wichstrom, & Lars R. Bergman. (2003). Eating problems and the self-concept: Results based on a representative sample of Norwegian adolescent girls. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 32(5), 325+.

Elaine Mooney, Heather Farley, & Chris Strugnell. (2004). Dieting among adolescent females - some emerging trends. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 28(4), 347.

Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Mary Story, Lori Beth Dixon, David M. Murray. (1998). Adolescents engaging in unhealthy weight control behaviors: Are they at risk for other health-compromising behaviors? American Journal of Public Health, 88(6), 952-5.

Nunes, M.A., Barros, F.C., Anselmo Olinto, M.T., & Camey, S. Mari. (2003). Prevalence of abnormal eating behaviours and inappropriate methods of weight control in young women from Brazil: A population-based study. Eating and Weight Disorders, 8(2), 100 -- 106,

French, Simone A, Story, Mary, Downes, Blake, Resnick, Michael D, & Blum, Robert W. (1995). Frequent dieting among adolescents: Psychological and health behavior correlates. American Journal of Public Health, 85(5), 695-701.

French, Simone A, Perry, Cheryl L, Leon, Gloria R, & Fulkerson, Jayne A. (1994). Weight concerns, dieting behavior, and smoking initiation among adolescents: A…

Sources used in this document:
References

Marcelo Ballve. (2006, November). A Model Society. Psychology Today,

39(6), 19.

Bennett, J.. (2009). A focus on child weight management. Practice Nurse,

37(2), 36-37.
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