Where to Look Up Certain Statistics?

Question by meekee02: Where to look up certain statistics?
I’ve been in the library and online. I need to find some sources for a persuasive speech I am giving. I am looking for something talking about how media influences people’s self image and teenagers who suffer from certain eating disorders. Any help would be appreciated! (Also if it is not an online source it would be appreciated AND/OR an online source that was actually published in the newspaper or a book.)

Best answer:

Answer by xo379
In a study on fifth graders, 10 year old girls and boys told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show “Friends”.

1996 study found that the amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin.

One study reports that at age thirteen, 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen.

In movies, particularly, but also in television shows and the accompanying commercials, women’s and girls’ appearance is frequently commented on: 58 percent of female characters in movies had comments made about their looks, as did 28 percent in television shows and 26 percent of the female models in the accompanying commercials. Mens’ and boys’ appearance is talked about significantly less often in all three media: a quarter (24%) of male characters in the movies, and 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, in television shows and commercials.

One in every three (37%) articles in leading teen girl magazines also included a focus on appearance, and most of the advertisements (50%) used an appeal to beauty to sell their products.

The commercials aimed at female viewers that ran during the television shows most often watched by teen girls also frequently used beauty as a product appeal (56% of commercials). By comparison, this is true of just 3 percent of television commercials aimed at men.
http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts

The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. says that one out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control—including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting.

Teen magazine reported that 35 per cent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 per cent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Overall research indicates that 90% of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some way.

Researchers report that women’s magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery.
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm

The average woman model weighs up to 25% less than the typical woman and maintains a weight at about 15 to 20 percent below what is considered healthy for her age and height

From the About-Face organization: “400-600 advertisements bombard us everyday in magazines, on billboards, on tv, and in newspapers. One in eleven has a direct message about beauty, not even counting the indirect messages.”
http://www.something-fishy.org/cultural/themedia.php

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Eating disorders:

The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that eating disorders affect more than 5 million Americans each year.

Approximately five percent of adolescent and adult women and one percent of men have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder.

Fifteen percent of young women have substantially disordered eating attitudes and behaviors.

Statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics show that “anorexia” or “anorexia nervosa” was the underlying cause of death noted on 101 death certificates in 1994, and was mentioned as one of multiple causes of death on another 2,657 death certificates.

Five to ten million adolescent girls and women struggle with eating disorders and borderline eating conditions.

8,000,000 or more people in the United States have an eating disorder.
90% are women.
Eating disorders usually start in the teens but may begin as early as age 8.
http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts

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National Eating Disorders Association Launches Re-Designed, More Interactive …

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Disorders Association (NEDA), the leading U.S. non-profit organization supporting individuals and families affected by eating disorders, has launched a fully re-designed website, offering additional resources to those in need of information and support …
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