Socialization of Eating Disorders

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Socialization starts a birth and ends at death. It is an ongoing process of learning, and it teaches us what is wrong and what is right, the social and cultural norms, family values, appropriate behavior and proper social skills. Socialization is happening at all times, every book we read, every television show we watch, every person we meet, every situation that we are involved in, it alters who we are. These are all agents of socialization, but the three most influential agents of socialization are our family, our peer group and the mass media. Sometimes our family, the people we hang out with, and the media do not have such great effects on us. Let’s look at how our family can unconsciously have an effect on a young woman’s self-image. The journal article “Family Influence on Disordered Eating: The Role of Body Image Dissatisfaction” by Annette S. Kluck, researched families that were very concerned with their appearance and the affect that they had on their daughters increased dissatisfaction with their body image. From the time girls are toddlers, everyone including family are telling them how cute they are or how beautiful they are or even sometime how “chubby” they are. This gives children the idea that how they look or how much they weigh is very important. Children are learning this at such an early age without family ever realizing the affects it may have. This also happens when young girls see their mothers complaining about their weight or saying that they need to diet. Children learn that because their mom is doing it, that this is how they are supposed to behave. It is concluded in the article that when a family member has body image dissatisfaction, it is a learned behavior and therefor increases the rate of problematic eating in children. I believe that this journal article used empirical evidence and the topic was researched thoroughly in a

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