Family and Peer Influences as Predictors of Body-Image Insecurity among Secondary School Adolescents

Abstract

This study was undertaken to investigate the correlation of family attitude to children, peer relationships and body image insecurity among secondary school adolescents in Cross River State. Correlational survey design was adopted as two research questions and two hypotheses were presented to guide the study. The independent variables include family attitude to children and peer relationships while the dependent variable is body-image insecurity. Data were collected using the researcher constructed Adolescent Body-Image Security Status Questionnaire (ABISSQ). The instrument was validated by experts both in the Educational Psychology and Measurement and Evaluation units. Cronbach Alpha reliability estimate method was adopted to establish the reliability of the instrument. A sample size of three hundred and eighty-six (386) students from 11,702 Senior Secondary School 2 (SSS 2) and one hundred and sixty-nine (169) schools from two hundred and ninety-four public secondary schools in Cross River State were selected into the study using the stratified random sampling technique. Independent t-test and Simple Regression Analysis were used to test the two hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results from the study indicated that both family attitude towards children and peer relationships had significant contribution in predicting body-image security status of adolescents in Cross River State. In view of this, it was recommended among others that schools should be intentional in teaching students the art of developing empathy in relating with other. This will help in fostering the building of deeper, more trusting and more meaningful relationship with themselves thereby enhancing better learning outcome among the adolescents. By so doing, this would help alleviate the psychological burden these adolescents bear in order to ensure the development of emotionally competent and mentally healthy adolescents with positive body-image security status in public secondary schools in Cross River State.