Body positive content in social media can lift body image and mood!
Viewing social media content aimed at challenging mainstream beauty ideals can boost body confidence among young women, a new study in 2019 revealed.
Participants in the experimental research who were shown ‘body positive’ content on Instagram experienced improvements in body satisfaction, body appreciation and positive mood. Those in the same study shown ‘thin ideal’ images and neutral images did not report an equivalent improvement. A new trend on social media, body positivity (or BoPo), aims to challenge narrow societal ideals of female beauty in favour of
In the experiment, 195 women aged 18 to 30 years were randomly allocated to view either 20 body positive, thin-ideal, or appearance-neutral Instagram posts. The women were asked to answer questions relating to their body image and mood immediately before and after viewing the posts.
In addition to showing improved body image and positive mood in response to body positive material, the participants also showed favourable attitudes towards body positive accounts, with the majority reporting being willing to follow them in future. Those exposed to ‘thin-ideal’ content experienced decreases in body satisfaction, body appreciation and positive mood.
The researchers said: “To the best of our knowledge, the study is the first to demonstrate that viewing ‘body positive’ content on Instagram may improve positive mood, body satisfaction, and body appreciation.
The research report can be found here:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444819826530
ACT NOW project meeting
The ActNow team met in Tartu, Estonia in
Body Confident Mums
The kickoff of the newly approved project “Body Confident Mum’s – An Innovative Health Professionals’ Training Program to support maternal mental and physical health” was held in Kristianstad, Sweden on 16th of December 2019.
Dr Zali Yager from Victoria University in Australia is working for Triskelion on this project.
The objectives of this project are to (i) develop, (ii) test (iii) implement and (iv) disseminate the training package for healthcare staff, enabling them to support the mental and physical well being for mothers of children 0-5 years. A further objective is to produce a functional training programme, reflective of the sociocultural diversity across Europe. The project aims to make the training material accessible to a broad range of HCP and other relevant stakeholders and will do so through multi-mode delivery.
Body Confident Mums
Kristianstad University won another project bid where Triskelion is
Partners are:
- Högskolan Kristianstad, Sweden
- Triskelion, Norway
GENIKO NOSOKOMEIOPAPAGEORGIOU , Greece- European Cleft Organisation, the Netherlands
- TARTU ULIKOOL, Estonia
- SPITALUL CLINIC DE
URGENTA PENTRU COPII “M. S. CURIE”, Romania - UNIVERZITET U NISU, Serbia
- UNIVERSITA TA MALTA, Malta
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FERRARA, Italy
ECCE conference in Sweden
The European COST action CA 16234 held their last conference of 2019 at Kristianstad University and Backaskog slott outside Kristianstad, Sweden.
The main aim was to discuss how we move forward the action according to MOU, the midterm assessment of the action, introduce a new workgroup leader for group 4 (Felicity Vidya Mehendale) and discuss the training school in Malta. 80 delegates were present. There were lectures on patient-centred care, the Japanese perspective, psychological resilience and different local perspectives in cleft care.
SCR4Cleft kickoff in Rijswijk
The kick-off meeting for a ground breaking new Erasmus+ project has just taken place at the project coordinator’s head office (European Cleft Organisation) in Rijswijk on Wednesday 20 November 2019. 17 participants attended from 9 partner countries including the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Serbia, Norway, Romania, Estonia, Ireland, Italy and Malta. The thee-year project will, for the first time, bring together specialists in speech therapy and psychology to develop an education programme to be delivered by health professionals to parents of children born with clefts. The course will enable parents to identify signs of impairment and offer practical ways of supporting their child who may be experiencing speech and language difficulties and/or psychological challenges associated with their condition. Speech, appearance and psychological adjustment are inextricably linked.
The team were pleased to welcome Danielle Eerenberg of Erasmus+ Netherlands to the meeting which focused on overall objectives, team planning, administrative procedures and monitoring. ECO Executive Director, Gareth Davies, said “I am delighted with the enthusiasm we had around the table from international experts in the field. The partnership is really strong and everyone knows that the real beneficiaries of this project will be the families of children born with clefts” The next meeting will be hosted by the Irish partner in Dublin in May 2020. PARTNERS ARE:
- European Cleft Organisation, The Netherlands
- Associatcia Licevi Anomalii, Bulgaria
- Triskelion, Norway
- Spitalul Clinic De Urgenta Pentru Copii “M. S. Curie”, Romania
- Smile House – Fondazione Operation Smile Italia Onlus
- L-Universita ta’Malta UM
- University of Niš, Serbia
- University of Tartu (UT), Estonia
- Speech at Home, Ireland
News coverage Up&Go Croatia
The Up & Go project
