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The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Although different aspects of body image have been extensively studied in Western societies, there is little evidence regarding the main physical components that contribute to perceptions of body image from the perspective of adolescents, especially in Eastern-Mediterranean regions. This...

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Autores principales: Jalali-Farahani, Sara, Amiri, Parisa, Zarani, Fariba, Azizi, Fereidoun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7791799/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33413229
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10096-7
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author Jalali-Farahani, Sara
Amiri, Parisa
Zarani, Fariba
Azizi, Fereidoun
author_facet Jalali-Farahani, Sara
Amiri, Parisa
Zarani, Fariba
Azizi, Fereidoun
author_sort Jalali-Farahani, Sara
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Although different aspects of body image have been extensively studied in Western societies, there is little evidence regarding the main physical components that contribute to perceptions of body image from the perspective of adolescents, especially in Eastern-Mediterranean regions. This study aims to investigate main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian boys and girls. METHODS: This qualitative study has been conducted using a grounded theory approach. The focus of the current study was on identifying the main physical characteristics of body image as perceived by participants. A total of 13 semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with 84 adolescents (42 girls and 42 boys), aged 15–18 years. All focus group discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data collection continued until saturation was reached. RESULTS: The mean age and BMI of participants were 16.2±0.9 years and 24.3±8.0 kg/m(2) respectively. Regarding main physical components of body image, three main themes emerged from the data: 1) perceived face/hair, which included three subthemes-facial features, facial shape/form and hair, 2) perceived body, which included three subthemes-body size, body shape and bone structure and 3) perceived physical functioning which included three subthemes-physical ability, physical health and voice tone. Among mentioned themes, perceived body was the concept which was most frequently addressed by both adolescent boys and girls. Additionally, in terms of the other remaining two themes, when adolescents were talking about their bodies, girls more frequently mentioned their faces and its features, while boys tended to talk more about their physical functioning. CONCLUSION: This qualitative study provide further insight into the physical components of body image as perceived by Iranian boys and girls. Current findings indicated that besides those features that focused on body appearance and its aesthetic aspects, physical functioning was another main component of perceived body image by participants. These findings can contribute to the design and implementation of effective interventions aiming at improving body image and its related disorders in Iranian adolescents. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-020-10096-7.
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spelling pubmed-77917992021-01-11 The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study Jalali-Farahani, Sara Amiri, Parisa Zarani, Fariba Azizi, Fereidoun BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Although different aspects of body image have been extensively studied in Western societies, there is little evidence regarding the main physical components that contribute to perceptions of body image from the perspective of adolescents, especially in Eastern-Mediterranean regions. This study aims to investigate main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian boys and girls. METHODS: This qualitative study has been conducted using a grounded theory approach. The focus of the current study was on identifying the main physical characteristics of body image as perceived by participants. A total of 13 semi-structured focus group discussions were conducted with 84 adolescents (42 girls and 42 boys), aged 15–18 years. All focus group discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data collection continued until saturation was reached. RESULTS: The mean age and BMI of participants were 16.2±0.9 years and 24.3±8.0 kg/m(2) respectively. Regarding main physical components of body image, three main themes emerged from the data: 1) perceived face/hair, which included three subthemes-facial features, facial shape/form and hair, 2) perceived body, which included three subthemes-body size, body shape and bone structure and 3) perceived physical functioning which included three subthemes-physical ability, physical health and voice tone. Among mentioned themes, perceived body was the concept which was most frequently addressed by both adolescent boys and girls. Additionally, in terms of the other remaining two themes, when adolescents were talking about their bodies, girls more frequently mentioned their faces and its features, while boys tended to talk more about their physical functioning. CONCLUSION: This qualitative study provide further insight into the physical components of body image as perceived by Iranian boys and girls. Current findings indicated that besides those features that focused on body appearance and its aesthetic aspects, physical functioning was another main component of perceived body image by participants. These findings can contribute to the design and implementation of effective interventions aiming at improving body image and its related disorders in Iranian adolescents. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-020-10096-7. BioMed Central 2021-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7791799/ /pubmed/33413229 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10096-7 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jalali-Farahani, Sara
Amiri, Parisa
Zarani, Fariba
Azizi, Fereidoun
The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study
title The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study
title_full The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study
title_fullStr The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study
title_short The main physical components of body image from the perspectives of Iranian adolescents: a qualitative study
title_sort main physical components of body image from the perspectives of iranian adolescents: a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7791799/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33413229
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-10096-7
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