Study Of The Body Image Of Spanish Children And Adolescents

Study of the body image of Spanish children and adolescents

In the present study the body image of Spanish children and adolescents was analyzed, and the differences in it depending on the diet and the level of physical activity. Taking into account the results obtained, different evidence can be observed.

The first is reflected in Table 1 in which significant differences were found between sexes in the primary age group, and also, significant differences were found between children and the rest of the groups. It can be seen how as age increases in boys, it does its current body image in unison, as in girls, although not as linearly as in men. These results agree with the study of García Fernández and Garita Azofeifa, in which body satisfaction and the physical concept of adolescents were analyzed and it was observed that the body image is constantly changing, especially in ages as marked as adolescence, dueto physical development, psychological factors and media influences.

Then, Table 2 shows the relationship between the desired body image of the participants according to the age and sex of the same. There are significant differences between sexes in primary, secondary and group groups where all participants are included. If we look at the group of boys, it is observed that from child to bachelor. These results agree with studies where gender differences were analyzed in body image and their importance in weight control, such as the study of Ramos, Rivera, Pérez, Lara and Moreno (2016), in which it was observed as the girlsAs they grow, they increase their body dissatisfaction, having as a behavior to diet to lose weight, whether or not necessary;However, this did not happen in the boys, because as the age increased, his body image also did, showing himself more satisfied in adolescence than girls.

Observing Table 3, in the section of participants satisfied with their body image, you can see how in both sexes, as the age of the participants increases it is done by their body dissatisfaction, that is, as studentsThey are growing are more dissatisfied with their body. However, these dissatisfaction data are greater in boys than in girls. This differs from results found in other studies, López Pérez, Solé Burgos and Cortés Moskowich analyzed the perception of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of body image in adolescents, found that both sexes care about their body image. However, it was the girls who possessed greater body dissatisfaction. Unlike our study.

On the other hand, with respect to the age groups, significant differences were found in the group of all students, comparing children with the rest of the groups, we appreciate that it is the students who have an age between 6 and 15 years who wanted to be morethin. With these results it can be seen that, in general, body dissatisfaction has increased and the large majority has a desire to be thinner, which differs from results found in other studies.

Regarding the differences between sexes, significant differences were found in primary and secondary participants in satisfied, in both cases being the girls who were most satisfied with their body. Significant differences in children and baccalaureate were also found in the section I want to be thinner, being bachelor’s girls, with 53.2 %, those who wanted to reduce their body size. These data agree with the results of other studies such as López Pérez, Solé Burgos and Cortés Moskowich, in which body dissatisfaction for the desire to be thinthat in the masculine.

Analyzing Table 4, diet quality, it is observed that significant differences are found between ages in the group in which all students are included. The quality of the average diet did not reach 8 in any group (necessary score for the diet to be considered optimal). These results agree with the study of Martínez, of the Olmo and Announcement, in which the quality of the diet and the nutritional status in children and adolescents was evaluated, and it was observed that both boys and girls are unfortunately possess a media diet mostly/low quality. This can be attributed to frequent fast food consumption.

Similarities have been found between our results and those of other studies that have analyzed the quality of the diet and BMI in adolescents, such as Rodríguez Cabrero et al., in which different factors were observed by which the diets of today’s young people are not as high quality as they should be. As in the present study, this is due to the great ease of access to different types of food, some nutrient rich and others characterized by their absence, that is, because they are empty calories. Consequently, if this joins the important influence of the media, a greater tendency towards inappropriate diets is obtained as a result.

Table 5 shows the days of physical activity per week. Analyzing by sex, it is found that the percentage of girls who perform physical activity a week is significantly lower than that of boys. Coinciding with the results obtained by Garzón, Fernández, Sánchez and Gross (2002), these differences are probably due to socio-cultural reasons of yesteryear, prejudices or stereotypes. On the other hand, in terms of the level of physical activity we can classify all students as inactive, because no group complies with the provisions of characterize as the opposite, active. This level of inactivity is worthy of concern.

As the years increase there are more young people who stay at home with electronic devices than those who go out to play on the street, something unthinkable 40 years ago, when the figures for participation in sports were very high. Currently, much of students does not have interest in physical activity, either to improve or maintain their health or to create a habit of sports practice. Students are not aware of how beneficial it is to do sports, be active. Thanks to sports practice, you can reduce the risk of disease, activate mind and body, create friendship ties, etc. A possible solution would be to instill these values in school or give informative talks to parents. Thanks to this, the risk of obesity could be reduced and increased in the population level in the population.

Table 6 shows that a large majority of the subjects that form this study are dissatisfied with their current body image, which may be due to the type of diet they perform. However, differences according to diet were not significant. In addition, we find similarities with the results of Durá Travé and Castroviejo Gandarias, in which the various factors that could condition the nutritional quality that occurred in the diets of the participants were analyzed. Possibly poor diet is due to a lack of nutritional education, since to eat well you must also teach.

Today’s youth would have to perform the Mediterranean diet regularly, to contribute to an optimal state of health and a varied food, their frequency of consumption should follow the guidelines indicated in the nutritional pyramid. It is recommended to teach students to compare their low quality diet with the optimal Mediterranean diet, incorporating or eliminating leftover nutrients. For example: incorporate more fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy and eliminate excess saturated fat from the pastries or refined foods, allocating its use exclusively to occasional consumption.

Rectifying its eating habit and creating adherence to the Mediterranean diet, numerous advantages would be obtained, such as the decrease in childhood obesity percentages, the reduction of cases of type II diabetes, or the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, greater mental and physical well -being in the subjects would be achieved, feeling more satisfied with their body image.

The results of Table 7 show how those inactive subjects who look more bulky are those that perform less physical activity. Instead, active subjects have a healthier body image. This result suggests a positive influence of physical activity on the body image of Spanish children and adolescents. Mieziene, Jankauskiene and Mickuniene found similar results in their study, in which they evaluated the body image of 821 teenagers of Lithuania (335 boys and 486 girls) from 15 to 18 years (m = 16.61, De = 0.73), and observed that the internalization of athletic body image was associated with a greater practice of intense physical activity, both in children and in girls. However, these results contrast with those of Jankauskienė et al. , who studied the body image of 470 Lithuanian adolescents (230 boys and 240 girls) with an average age of 14.97 years (0.41), and found that body dissatisfaction was not related to a lower frequency of physical exercise. It is possible that these different results are also due to factors that have not been studied in the present study as sociocultural, socioeconomic factors, or even different climates. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out new studies on the influence of physical activity in the body image of people, in different geographical areas, and with broad samples, which also study these factors.

Analyzing Table 8, it is observed that, although no significant differences were found, the participants who had an optimal diet also had greater body satisfaction than the subjects who had an improvable diet. In addition, participants who had an improvable diet wanted to be thinner. Likewise, the tendency was observed that, as the diet worsens, so does the body image tending to the choice of a larger stunkard silhouette. On the other hand, another fact to highlight is that, as the quality of the diet worsens, the discrepancy increases, and this does not happen simply because the current medium image is larger when the diet worsens, but also because the desired image ofSubjects who have a low quality diet are less than that of subjects who have an optimal diet.

Currently, body image and diet are very treated aspects, not only due to subjects of stereotypes but also because of their influence on people’s health. Studies such as Lameiras, Portado, Rodríguez, and Fernández (2003) stand out, which shows that most girls and all the boys in the sample did not have a distortion of body image;However, a large majority of girls (70%) and practically half of the boys (52.8%) would like to weigh less and are afraid of gaining weight.

Analyzing our study you can see how results are obtained very similar to the aforementioned study, since regardless of the diet, between 43% and 49% of the subjects want to be thinner. Through the study of Acosta and Peresmitr, comparative relationships between Mexicans and Spanish have been established, concluding that Mexicans who diet are highly dissatisfied, unlike those who do not practice it that are less dissatisfied;On the other hand, among the Spaniards this is invested: those who do not diet are more dissatisfied than those who practice it, which is reflected in the results of the present study.

Table 9’s results show how the number of active subjects satisfied with their body image is significantly higher than that of inactive subjects (47.9% vs 38.6%). These data agree with those of Martínez Gómez and Veiga Núñez, who indicate that the habit of physical activity practice is related to an increase in body satisfaction in adolescents, however, abandonment or lack of sports, is associated with theBody dissatisfaction. Studies such as Lavielle-Sotomayor, Pineda-Aquino, Jáuregui-Jiménez and Castillo-Trejo stand out, which shows that the lack of physical activity and sedentary behaviors predict our state of health. When students do sports, apart from improving their health unconsciously, they self-perceive better.

It is very important that, from an early age, students practice any physical activity that finds them to pleasure, being their favorite moment of the day and not the opposite. At the moment when the practice of physical activity becomes an obligation instead of a reward, the student will tend to a greater abandonment capacity and greater ease when creating sedentary behavior. Therefore, the role of parents, family or teachers is very important in these ages. Also, it is important that the child chooses the sport he wants to practice and none is imposed from the outside, since, if this occurs, the probability that they let it do will be greater will be greater.

Some authors, such as Álvarez, López, Gómez, Mesa and Martínez, talk about the fundamental role that the motivation in sports practice plays when creating healthy habits in people.

As mentioned above, when students are correctly educated since they are small, great long -term results are created. In the school context, if the autonomy of the students is promoted, fun strategies are created when setting the marked objectives and adequate feedback is provided when carrying out the activities, achieving great advances that would make students enjoy during theclasses, they stayed active and could extrapolate everything they learned to be able to do it in their daily lives. Thanks to this, it could significantly reduce the bodily dissatisfactions that currently exist.

Finally, the main strengths of this study were the broad sample of it and the use of validated questionnaires. As for the limitations, the children’s and baccalaureate sample was smaller than that of primary and secondary school, so it is recommended that future studies analyze broader samples of children and high school.