Children as young as three unhappy with the way they look

A survey of childcare professionals by PACEY suggests that a quarter of them have witnessed signs that children aged between three- and five-years-old are already worried about what their bodies look like.

PACEY says that the research highlights how body image is affecting children’s self-esteem at a younger and younger age. Seventy-one per cent of childcarers said that children are becoming anxious about body image at a younger age, with 57 per cent of the view that girls are more conscious of how they look than boys.

Phrases such as ‘She/he is fat’ are commonly heard among children in childcare settings – 31 per cent of practitioners said that they have heard a child call themselves fat.

And around one in five childcare workers have seen children reject food because they say ‘it will make them fat’.

Ten per cent of them said they have heard children saying they feel ugly, while 16 per cent have witnessed children saying that they wished that they were as pretty or good looking as someone else.

Practitioners believe that parents and peers have the biggest influence on children’s perceptions: 37 per cent believe children’s anxieties about what they look like come from children, while 32 per cent cited parents. The media is also blamed by 25 per cent of respondents for fueling a culture of self-consciousness and anxiety.

Dr Jacqueline Harding, PACEY advisor and child development expert said, ‘By the age of three or four some children have already pretty much begun to make up their minds (and even hold strong views) about how bodies should look. There is also research evidence to suggest that some four-year-olds are aware of strategies as to how to lose weight.

‘Of course, there is now mounting concern that the formation of these views (so early on in life) may develop into later eating disturbances or depression. We know for sure that early experiences matter the most and we need to be very careful about how (even inadvertently) we signal to children that they should think negatively about their bodies and how they look.

‘More research is needed in this area but contributing factors are likely to include: images on TV; images in story books and animations and the general chat by adults about their bodies, dieting, cosmetic surgery etc. There is little doubt that low levels of self-esteem appear to contribute significantly to negative perceptions of body image.’

The research was carried out by PACEY with 361 childcare professionals between 27 June and 8 August.

Liz Bayram, chief executive of PACEY, said, ‘We were shocked that so many early years practitioners are observing body image issues amongst the very young children in their care and recognise that more needs to be done to support practitioners to address these issues.

‘Whilst early years settings are already supporting children’s social and emotional development, in particular helping to build their self-esteem, this is a challenging area that the current Early Years Foundation Stage framework (and its equivalent in Wales) does little to address.

‘We have a growing childhood obesity crisis in the UK and early years settings need greater training and guidance on how to promote positive body image in very young children.’

She added that it would be an ‘ideal opportunity’ to include more guidance on positive body image when the Government updates the EYFS to reflect new guidance on physical activity in the early years.

‘With this support, early years practitioners will be well placed to promote positive body images as well as healthy lifestyles and to provide the advice and guidance parents need if they are seeing signs of body anxieties in their children. This could make a significant contribution to ensuring more young children can become body confident.’

PACEY is the early years partner for Be Real, a national movement campaigning to change attitudes to body image, helping to put health above appearance.

Denise Hatton, chief Executive of YMCA England, a founding partner of the Be Real Campaign for body confidence, said, ‘Body confidence issues are prevalent among young people today and the survey results from PACEY add to the array of evidence that suggests intervention at a young age is necessary.’

The Be Real Campaign is working with PACEY and other partner organisations to develop resources and materials to help schools, parents and students challenge the way young people view and talk about their bodies.

It is launching the Schools Body Confidence Campaign with resources for secondary schools later this year, but says that more work is needed to reach primary age and younger children.

Dr Harding’s advice to parents to support children to be ‘body confident’

• Be aware that your child is watching you and listening – take care to talk about your own body in a positive way (even if you don’t feel like it!);
• Build their self-confidence and self-image by focusing on who they are as a person – not what they look like –for example, praise them for acts of kindness to others and not for looking pretty/handsome;
• Gradually, in an age appropriate way, begin to point out how photographs and images are changed to be improved.

Resources for childcare professionals and parents to help support children adopt positive attitudes to their bodies are available at www.pacey.org.uk/bodyconfidence.