It’s one of life’s most momentous rites of passage. Every August young adults shed their status in high school and enthusiastically assume a new role as college freshmen (aka “first-years”). Starry-eyed, ambitious, and naively straddling puberty and adulthood, they are not necessarily prepared for newfound independence. And they are rarely prepared, it seems, for how college affects body image.
But hovering quietly over studies, friendships, and football games is an issue that enters and leaves college with every student. An issue that may have been, before now, relatively unacknowledged and rarely discussed by the student.
Body Image: Everybody Has One
Good or bad, everyone has a body image.
Your body image has nothing to do with your body itself. It does, however, have everything to do with how you think and feel about it.
It’s about your relationship with your body. And that relationship, like any other, is the combo of a lot of factors: upbringing, expectations, family, friends, culture.
Add in Diet Culture, social media, sports, and a madly competitive world, and suddenly body image is extremely vulnerable.
What you see in the mirror isn’t necessarily what’s physically there, but a reflection of what you feel about it. While you look with your eyes, your mind “looks” with filters and judgments.
It comes as no surprise that body image is central to the lives of teens. Their bodies are changing rapidly (and unpredictably), and friends have different timelines toward maturity.
And the physical changes are coinciding with mental, emotional, and social changes that dictate so much of a teen’s self-concept.
Fast forward to a new life of semi-independence, and it’s no wonder college affects body image in such a determinative way.
Risks Unique To College Students
If you are the parent of a college student, you know the mixed feelings associated with your child’s departure. Excitement, pride, trepidation, worry: you can’t help but feel both the highs and lows. After all, you have more life under your belt and know how vulnerable this time is for your young adult.
One of the most concerning statistics has to do with the mortality rates and causes in college students.
While accidental deaths top the list (especially for alcohol-related vehicular accidents), suicide comes in second. (Various reports state suicide comes in as high as first and as low as third in terms of mortality among college students.)
If you can mentally put aside the lead-up to college – the tests, applications, acceptance, graduation – the risks come into view.
Now consider a student’s vulnerability at such a transitional age when mental illnesses are most likely to manifest. A new environment; absence of family and friends; new people; greater academic demands; social expectations; access to alcohol, drugs, and unlimited food.
On the one hand, college is a kind of utopia for a young person. The world of academia is limitless and full of possibilities. The social opportunities are abundant, if not overwhelming. And the suddenly gained independence is as thrilling as it is eye-opening.
But buried within the bravery of every new college student is an adolescent swept into emerging adulthood at high speed. And that often means that unresolved, even unaddressed, mental, emotional, and self-image issues enroll with the student.
Sadly but not surprisingly, one of the most profound issues likely to expose itself during college is that of body image. Left unacknowledged and/or untreated, body image issues can lead to greater dangers like eating disorders and even death.
The Construction of Body Image in College Students
Revelations from an in-depth body-image study of Chinese college students have continuity across borders and oceans. And the conclusions about how college affects body image are not only concerning, but disturbing.
Perhaps an impetus for the study was the students’ transformative behaviors that led to the comparison of college to plastic surgery. Students were obsessed with transforming their physical looks between freshman year and graduation, then “photo-sharing” on the internet.
This pursuit of an “ideal body shape” isn’t limited to China. It is, in fact, rampant on college campuses here in the U.S., if not worldwide.
Within the study, there is reference to an alarming notion among college students that “good looks and figure equate to justice.”
Let that sink in a minute.
Now imagine what a young, scholastically merited but physiologically incomplete and experientially naive mind can do with that.
When we talk about how college affects body image, we’re talking about “intelligent” young adults with unlimited access to information and trends. Kids who have, on average, four intense years in which to “become”…and, in this fast-paced, competitive world, to “brand.”
The quest to identify and align with the “ideal” is therefore paramount. And indoctrinated students will do just about anything in the way of body management to attain that goal.
When that pursuit is for an “ideally thin” physique, weight-modification behaviors come into play: diets, extreme exercise, caffeine, drugs, etc.
And always, lurking beneath the surface, is a struggling, ungrounded, “unsure” body image – and usually no understanding of what that even means.
This blind (and dangerous) ambition reveals itself all the more when a new “ideal” is determined and behaviors again change.
Likewise, when weight-loss efforts (aka dieting) fail and emotional eating ramps up, the student goes through another mental and emotional swing.
At an age when teens are molting into adulthood and a sense-of-self, such reliance on outside, arbitrary expectations is catastrophic. For those who don’t enter college with a high grade of mental health and strong family support, the risks are especially high.
Body-Image Influences and Eating Disorder Risks in the College Environment
Consider the residential life of students who go away to school: dorms, fraternities and sororities, apartments with roommates. College students are literally immersed in a pressure cooker of diversity and comparison with little opportunity for privacy.
Roommates may be assigned, forcing an adjustment to different personalities, cultures, behaviors, eating habits, and body ideals.
Imagine being in a large body and having a roommate who body-checks constantly, has a regimented eating schedule, and talks about being “too fat.”
This isn’t a far-fetched scenario. And both students are forced into an unprepared-for dichotomy that can challenge their potential friendship and health.
And the differences can be seen everywhere on campus. With every kind of food available 24/7 and all-nighters an acquired taste for studying, eating habits are on full display.
And so are body-image issues. After all, one can hide only so much when living in such close proximity to other students. If cohabiting females inevitably fall into synchronized menstrual cycles, it makes sense that their body-image ideas will overlap, too.
It’s important to remember that eating disorders are a mental illness with physical, psychological, and social components.
They are not “about the food,” but about the relationship with food. Think of eating disorders as being similar to the way body image isn’t about one’s body, but one’s relationship with it.
Disordered eating refers to a range of irregular eating behaviors that may or may not warrant an eating-disorder diagnosis.
Just as college affects body image, it also puts students at higher risk of disordered eating and eating disorders. Behaviors like not eating in order to fit into a certain outfit or before going on a date are common.
Similarly, over-exercising as punishment for “overeating” or simply as a way to lose weight is also common.
Remember, today’s college student is inundated with worldwide influences and technology for self-shaping. Unless she enters college with sound mental health and a strong support system from home, her body image is at risk.
And once her body image is at risk, so is her health, in all dimensions…and possibly even her life.
Where do we go from here?
By the time teens are ready to leave home for college, they may already be suffering from mental health concerns. Depression and anxiety, for example, are the most common mental health issues among college students.
As forms of mental illness, eating disorders often go unrecognized and/or untreated until they become severe.
Because poor body image can evolve into disordered eating and eating disorders, the topic needs to be addressed from an early age. Parents, for example, should be aware of their children’s social media use and what they are exposed to.
And, knowing that college affects body image and can lead to more dangerous problems, they ought to maintain a strong support system for their collegiate children.
They should also make sure their children know how and where to seek psychological help on campus.
Anticipation, preparation, and discussion are essential for students to meet the personal challenges that are an inevitable part of the college experience. After all, the most important part of earning a degree is coming away with a strong, healthy sense-of-self.
Dr. Elayne Daniels is an international coach, consultant, and psychologist specializing in eating disorders, body image, and High Sensitivity. She is anti-diet, Intuitive Eating certified and passionately believes comfort in your body at any size is your birthright. Contact her here for more information.
Contact her here to learn more. And, if you’re struggling with overcoming an eating disorder, this e-book might be useful.