Counselling Program for Acceptance of Body Image and its Effect on Self-Esteem among Adolescent Girls

Abstract

Background: Acceptance of body image is a challenge during adolescence, particularly for girls. Aim of the study: to evaluate the counseling program for acceptance of body image and its effect on self-esteem among adolescent girls. Subjects and Methods: Research design: quasi experimental design used. Setting: two settings used; Om-elabtal and Al-hosayneya preparatory schools in Zagazig city. Subjects: 96 girls with the lowest body image score. Tools of data collection: self-administered questionnaire to collect sociodemographic data, Body Image Test for Healthy Individuals and Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory. Results : revealed that 21.4% of student girls weren’t accepting own body image, 33.7% of them had low self - esteem. After implementation of the counselling program, there were a statistically significant pre-post difference in both body image and self-esteem scores. In addition, results identified the counselling program as positive predictor of body image, while living with both parents and having net at home were the negative predictors. Additionally, findings indicated that the counselling program, having net at home and having hobbies were positive predictors of self-esteem, while previous failure and birth order were negative predictors. Conclusion: it was concluded that both body image was accepted and self-esteem was improved after implementation of the counselling program. Recommendations: it was recommended that further nursing interventions should be conducted to improve adolescents' self-esteem, applied on large scale, taking into account changing pubertal status, and the different effects on female students during program planning.