Back to Project List Body Image and Self-Esteem Applicant and/or teacher sponsor: Alice O'Rouke, Frances Marvel, Starlene Hewitt and Amara Stough Student Groups /Teachers/ Community Members/ Partnerships Involved: Elementary School, Junior High School, High School Steve Jurist Health Professionals Violence Prevention Initiative Mendocino Youth Project Redwood Coast Medical Services (RCMS) Number of students affected: 2500 Length of project: 1997-98 school year 1. Brief description of the project: The correlation between self-esteem and body image result from a cultural standard of feminine beauty. We will work to combat these unrealistic and unhealthy standards by visiting and giving seminars on the topic which will give people a healthier outlook about themselves and their eating habits. 2. Connections How does the project connect with our theme of people, history, and place? How does the project interact with the community? How will you evaluate or assess the community impact? How does the project connect with other NCRCN sites? Over time the ideal body image has changed. We want to evaluate people on what they think the ideal body image is, then compare it to the ideal image in magazines. Through this we can determine most likely that women do not have to be as skinny as they think they should be. We will share our information with the community, and especially with students to raise their self-esteem. By raising self-esteem we hope that the community will live a healthier life and we will bring an awareness about the dangers of anorexia and bulimia. We will ask the subjects to fill out an evaluation form, and hopefully other students will continue our project after we graduate, to ensure that the learning continues. We plan to use E-mail and video teleconferencing in communicating with other students. We also would like to give presentations in person, which would include skits on self-esteem and body image. 3. Student Learning How will the project improve student learning? How will you evaluate or assess what students have learned? What kind of data will you collect? Will you have an Action Research question? How will students be involved in the evaluation of the project? How does the project invite student planning/student choice? How will students share their project and learning with others at their own site, other sites or within the community? Will your project have a service learning component? If so please describe. Throughout research we have found that when people have high self-esteem their quality of school work improves. We will have a survey and ask the subjects to evaluate us on a scale of 1 to 5. Our Action Research question is: What is the relationship between body image and self-esteem? We hope to find results to our question by finding subjects and having them evaluate themselves, as well as their eating habits. We plan to take pictures on the computer of the individual subjects, then have each person adjust their body image on the computer to how they do look compared to their ideal body image. Students will be involved in our project by not only being evaluated, but also we will be sharing the information that we have found out with as many people as possible. During our research we plan that the subjects' results will be anonymous. The students will have a broader understanding of self-esteem, body image and eating disorders, and they will have the choice of leading a healthier life. We will share what we have learned, and hopefully our audiences will absorb the information and pass it along to others to teach about body image compared to self-esteem. We plan to be involved with RCMS and attend their weight-watcher group, participate in the program and possibly add our own input and knowledge. 4. Support What kind of support would you like from the coordinator/TSA? What kinds of funds will you need for the project? Please supply a general budget. (Staff development, release time for planning, transportation, materials.) What other sources might provide additional funding for the project? Hopefully Ann Slattery will help us contact the people needed that have higher education to assist us and provide transportation if needed. Our estimated budget is $200: Transportation 100 Software 60 Office Supplies 20 Scale 15 Measuring Tapes 5 The local health program provides a weight-watcher program and also a group called Soroptimist that supports women.