Six out of ten high school girls have tried extreme or dangerous diets to gain or lose weight. This is the conclusion of a World Vision Romania survey conducted among approximately 400 teenage girls, most of them from rural areas.
Extreme diets, a way of life of teenage girls in Romania. Photo source: archive
53% of teenage girls in the study did not participate in certain social activities because they felt insecure about how they looked, and 92% of girls want schools to hold discussions about body image and social media pressures to look a certain way, the organization announces in a statement sent to Edupedu.ro.
“Six out of ten girls have tried extreme or dangerous diets to gain or lose weight. This is because of the pressures they feel due to the images promoted in the media, including on social networks, which are far from the reality of most women. Another cause is criticism from boys and men. At the same time, half of the girls are only relatively or not at all satisfied with their bodies, and a similar percentage avoid participating in social activities due to insecurities related to their physical appearance”says the organization World Vision Romania, in a study whose results it published on the occasion of International Women's Day.
Survey findings
- Over 66% of girls feel judged by those around them for how they dress.
- 50% of teenage girls are relatively or not at all satisfied with their bodies.
- One in two teenage girls (47%) say they face pressure to look perfect because of social media.
- 64% of female respondents felt judged by boys or men based on their physical appearance.
- Six out of ten teenage girls have tried extreme or unhealthy diets at least once in their lives to lose or gain weight.
- More than half of them (53%) did not participate in certain social activities because they felt insecure about how they looked.
- Almost half constantly or frequently think that their lives would be better if they looked different.
- 92% of girls want schools to hold discussions about body image and social media pressures on young people to look a certain way.
Almost half (43.5%) of girls feel only relatively or not at all comfortable with their bodies, and 50% say they are satisfied with the way their bodies look.
Much of this pressure is caused by images on social media of women and teenage girls who look according to unrealistic standards for the vast majority of females, the statement said.
Another worrying reality concerns the large number of girls who have been criticized by people of the opposite sex, including adults, based on their physical appearance. More precisely, 64% of respondents felt judged by boys or men in this regard, claims World Vision Romania.
Consequences of pressures and criticisms related to physical appearance
Because of complexes about their bodies, six out of ten teenage girls have tried extreme or unhealthy diets at least once in their lives to lose or gain weight. And for almost a quarter of girls (23.4%), these dangerous diets are a habit, according to the NGO statement.
At the same time, four out of ten young women constantly or frequently feel guilty if they eat something considered unhealthy, while another two out of ten (22%) also face this feeling of guilt to a small extent, states World Vision Romania.
One of the solutions to this traumatic and oppressive phenomenon, which the girls themselves propose, is the involvement of the school. This should talk about diversity related to physical appearance, but also about the pressure on teenagers to look a certain way. 92% of girls want such discussions in class, according to the results of the research carried out by the World Vision Romania foundation.
