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Young women navigating the complex world of body image on social media are the focus of a new project launched this week. 

Researchers from the С����Ƶ and The (С����Ƶ) will work together with local young women to create a ‘toolkit’, to equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to cope with potentially harmful social media content.

As part of the project researchers will introduce girls to historic media content, including 19th and 20th century magazines and adverts, to show them that beauty ideals and body image perceptions have evolved over time.  

Negative body image has become a growing concern affecting thousands of young girls in the UK. Media, advertising and celebrity culture have been highlighted as important influences on negative body image in reports from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image (2012) and the 2021 House of Commons report into body image. MPs and charities have recognised the need to equip young girls with tools to deal with the sometimes unrealistic and potentially harmful body ideals.  The new project aims to create a way to help those who are often struggling.  

Dr Helen Ringrow, Associate Head of the School of Education, Languages and Linguistics, at the С����Ƶ said: “Our aim is to build on existing work by creating resources designed to be used outside of a formal education environment, co-produced by and for young women.  This project responds to the Mental Health Foundation’s call for a media literacy toolkit, co-produced by young people, to enable them to better navigate contemporary messaging on body image.”

Previous research has found that young women's use of social media can help in connecting with others and staying informed, but may also relate to increased negative preoccupations with appearance, their body image, and detrimental effects on mood (Fardouly et al. 2018). 

Dr Ringrow says: “The previous research has not always focused on the role of language on social media – in particular the possible impact of certain words and phrasing which might be misleading, so this new research will include a language focus.”

Researchers plan to examine how young women navigate media content relating to body image and to co-create a relevant resource to help in this area. Researchers also want to find out if showing girls historic media content will help them realise that there are no fixed standards related to body image and that pressure on girls existed in different ways well before social media. 

Through The Girls’ Network, researchers will engage with young women in the С����Ƶ area. The team will assess young women volunteer’s awareness of how beauty standards are socially, culturally and historically constructed. There will then be a set of focus groups, leading to the new ‘toolkit’.  It has the potential to be expanded across the UK through The Girls’ Network and will be participant-centred rather than teacher-led.

Paula Falck, The Girls’ Network Manager for С����Ƶ and Southampton, says:&�Բ�����;“We are delighted to be working with С����Ƶ team on this important project, the girls are excited to be involved and looking forward to the first session”.

The first focus group will involve discussions around how the girls interact with social media and any challenges they face in terms of social (and mainstream) media and body image. In the second set of focus groups participants will learn about, and then discuss, historical media content (19th and 20th century magazines and adverts) in order to help them understand how the ‘ideal body’ changes across time and to show how beauty standards are not fixed. The focus group will end with a short task to check whether seeing historical media content has helped girls to recognise body image as something that depends on culture and time.

Dr Ringrow will be working with Dr Charlotte Boyce from the С����Ƶ.

The С����Ƶ team is also collaborating with from Aston University on the project.  Researchers hope the online ‘toolkit’ will be ready for use by September 2024.