Gender Differences in Respect to Self-Esteem and Body Image as Well as Response to Adolescents’ School-Based Prevention Programs

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This review explores the impact of gender roles on adolescents' self-esteem and body image and the influence of prevention programs on these two factors when delivered in mixed gender vs. uni-gender groups. Self-esteem is a large part of adolescents' self-understanding and it is dynamic and susceptible to internal and external influences during adolescence. Gender roles influence adolescents' self-esteem. While, self-confidence is a stereotypical male feature, presentation of self-confidence for girls is considered a breach of traditional gender roles. Therefore, it is not surprising that boys report higher self-esteem than girls. It is more likely to see boys in situations that encourage competition, conflict, power, and excitement while girls in situations of intimacy, self-disclosure, support, and co-rumination. While girls tend to develop emotions related to internalizing problems, boys tend to develop emotions related to externalizing problems. Considering the body ideal for males (muscular and lean) vs. females (thin body), it can explain why adolescent girls reported more body dissatisfaction compared to boys. Body dissatisfaction can cause harmful emotional, psychological and physiological effects. During adolescents, girls appear to be more vulnerable to the negative psychological health effects of stress, they present significant higher levels of adaptation, depressive symptomatology and eating disorder. Boys tend to display higher prevalence of externalizing behavior problems, aggression, antisocial and delinquency. Gender differences were reported in messages/concepts internalization among adolescents. Moreover, conflicting results were reported in respect to the impact of prevention programs on adolescents' body image and self-esteem when delivered in mixed gender groups vs. single-gender groups. Further research is needed to explore what is the best practice in respect to self-esteem and body image school-based prevention programs, and its preferred setting.