Body Image Stress Research Articles

The Psychosocial Burden Of Psoriasis: Understanding The Impact On Mental Health And Well-Being

Psoriasis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory skin condition that is distinguished by scaly, red lesions that can be uncomfortable, itchy, and disfiguring. Psoriasis can influence aspects of one’s life beyond distressful physical symptoms, such as mood and quality of life. Patients diagnosed with psoriasis are 39% more likely to suffer from concomitant depression and 31% of patients are diagnosed with anxiety [1]. Due to physical manifestations, individuals with psoriasis are at increased risk of developing issues of poor social perception and body image stress [2]. Research states that psoriasis flare-ups are sometimes directly linked with bouts of anxiety and depression; conversely, physical symptoms of psoriasis may be attributed to psychosocial issues. For example, depression may cause a lack of proper adherence to treatment and lead to exacerbated inflammation. Understanding the psychosocial aspects of psoriasis may provide pertinent clinical information; thereby, allowing seamless integration of psychiatric treatments for the overall treatment protocol for psoriasis. This project delves into understanding how decreased emotional and social well-being can challenge the proper maintenance and treatment of psoriasis. Further, this paper highlights adaptive coping strategies and social support networks that are key in enhancing treatment viability. Oliver C, Robert PD, Daihung D, et al. The Risk of Depression, Anxiety, and Suicidality in Patients With Psoriasis. Arch Dermatol. 2010;146(8) Hepat A, Chakole S, Rannaware A. Psychological Well-Being of Adult Psoriasis Patients: A Narrative Review. Cureus. 2023

Artist Statement: Violent Journeys

Artist StatementViolent Journeys Debjani Chakravarty (bio) Violent Journeys is a digital painting created using the software programs Photoshop, ArtRage, and ms Paint. I started focusing heavily on digital art after coming to the United States in 2006. As an accounted-for “alien” without too many art resources, including physical space, digital art became my refuge. I used this “non-messy” medium to continue making my abstract and surreal paintings. I have now switched back to traditional art: I use a lot of pastels, watercolors, color pencils, and acrylics, as well as found and recyclable objects to create art. Digital art for me, however, remains shrouded in nostalgia and hope; it reminds me of displacement, loneliness, and creative excitement. This particular painting has a personal backstory, and I choose to not make it public. Wary somewhat of a culture of disclosures and confessions, I am forever mindful of the politics of sharing, the burden of too much information, the anxiety of self-information management, and academic/activist/artistic performances. The themes of the backstory have to do, however, with the violence of transnationalism, and this is why I feel that this art fits this special issue on transnational feminisms. To me, as to many transnational feminist scholars, issues of globalization are inseparable from using transnational feminism as a body of theory, a methodology, and a model of collaborative knowledge creation and feminist interventions. In this painting I portray globalization as essentially violent, including the violences of exchange, change, war, mobility, alienation, and excitement. No discussion on current forms and effects of globalization can leave out centuries-old stories of globalization in which empire building and colonization allowed capitalism to spread and rule like a state, and trafficked human beings on whose oppressed backs the new worlds accumulated wealth. One cannot leave out stories of the spread of religion and technology, texts and taxes. One cannot simply start from the present day where previously colonized, economically drained, arbitrarily created “third-world countries” [End Page 137] swimming in debt are forced to “open themselves” to capitalism and free trade, which makes their existing inequities deeper and more permanent. Globalization washes its hands of violence with soap manufactured in maquiladoras; globalization looks away as Rana Plaza collapses and drones cause human bug splats; the World Trade Center is attacked and becomes a reason for attacks; and toxic gas envelopes Bhopal. Globalization suppresses stories of anti-capitalist uprisings and placates discontent with cyber Monday sales. Globalization spreads self-righteous discontent about starvation and female genital “mutilation” while enthusiastically exporting a cult of thinness and body-image stress and eating disorders. This art represents many such stories of violence: stories that span the personal and the political, and all the sticky spaces in between. [End Page 138] Debjani Chakravarty debjani chakravarty is assistant professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Grand Valley State University; she has previously taught at Arizona State University and the University of Utah. She received her PhD in gender studies from Arizona State University. Her current research focuses on the epistemology of transnational feminisms, the development of feminist discourses, and collaborative epistemic exchange between scholars and activists in/between the global North and South. Her research areas also span feminist epistemology, pedagogy, and methodology; gendered citizenship and nationalisms; and globalization and the new media. She also creates poetry and abstract art as a way to understand and reframe realities. Copyright © 2015 Frontiers Editorial Collective, Inc.

Adolescent Weight Status and Self-Reported School Performance in South Korea

Using a nationally representative sample of 142 783 middle school (13–15 years old) and high school (16–18 years old) students in South Korea, this study examined whether (1) overweight and obesity are more likely to be associated with lower self-reported school performance; (2) overweight and obese students are more likely to enrol in a vocational high school as opposed to a general high school; (3) the association between obesity and poorer self-reported school performance is mediated through body image stress and health status. We found that excess weight was negatively associated with self-reported school performance among middle and general high school students, and that obese students had a higher probability of being enrolled in a vocational over a general high school. We did not find strong evidence on the mediating role of body image stress and health status.

Body image stress in neutral mask work

The development of new theories and data coming from the social and psychological sciences has dramatically changed the techniques of training professional actors within the last ten years. At the same time, there are a number of questions emanating from theatre practitioners which may be profitably addressed by the psychological specialists. The following article is based upon my years of teaching experience in movement training for actors in a professional program. Although the work was done in a non-therapeutic situation, I believe the findings are relevant to all therapists, especially creative arts therapists.