Judging by appearance

How you look can increase risk of bullying, social exclusion & personal distress amongst adolescents, but psychological intervention can help young people deal with its affects.

Research conducted over the past three years by Dr. Emily Lovegrove, Research Fellow at the Centre for Appearance Research at the University of the West of England, was presented on Thursday 9 January 2003 at The British Psychological Society's Division of Educational and Child Psychology annual conference in Harrogate.

The results showed that of 1,000 adolescents questioned, 75% cited teasing or bullying about appearance as causing distress. 31% said that they refused to engage in classroom debate because of their appearance. 20% of 15 year olds questioned said they had truanted because of their appearance.

Ignoring bullies or telling an adult were referred to by the children as commonly advised, but impractical, coping strategies.

Adolescents helped to develop an intervention of 6 one-hour sessions which was subsequently delivered to over 200 adolescents in the South West of England. The sessions included information on the importance of appearance in human interactions as well as learning 8 new coping strategies which were practised on hypothetical cases of adolescent bullying.

Six months later perceived levels of bullying had reduced by almost two thirds. Improvements to self-esteem and resilience to bullying were significant. Dr Lovegrove said "Distress and bullying in school arising from appearance-related issues is a wide-spread concern. Bullying about appearance is not character forming, a joke, or deserved. This research demonstrates that this form of abuse undermines global self-esteem and affects academic confidence."

Ref: PR365