Hot off the press! Research arising from the United Kingdom has again confirmed the impact of body image and pressure to lose weight on not only adolescent but adult body image and satisfaction. The impact of body image on the teen psyche has been well established.

Due to the changes of puberty, growth spurts and peer related comparison, young people are preoccupied with their bodies. When we add the overwhelming penetration of social media messaging and obsession with body shape, young people today live in a challenging time. The pressure to have largely unattainable physiques is tremendous.

The impact of commentary from parents and siblings lends heavily to perceptions of young people. Adolescents who feel pressure to lose weight from family or the media are most at risk of "internalised" weight stigma. This refers to the tendency to apply negative obesity-related stereotypes to themselves.

These include thoughts of being less attractive, less competent, or less valuable as a person because of their weight. Often, banter and comments are intended to lead to short term or immediate behaviour change. The can be long lasting effects on self-esteem and self-concept

In this research, longitudinal data was reviewed, exploring adults in their mid-thirties.

It established that that pressure from family to lose weight, weight-related teasing by family members, and feeling pressure from the media to lose weight as a teenager were all linked to higher levels of internalised weight stigma in early adulthood.

While experientially we are aware of the influence of the home and family environment on the self-esteem of young people, it is often assumed that this impact slowly dissipates into the adult years.

The hundreds of adults interviewed reported continued feelings of poor self-concept whether they were of normal weight or not. Many still perceived themselves in a negative light and reported “struggles” with eating, food enjoyment and healthy balance of exercise.

This research highlights the importance of parenting techniques and family dynamics on children, young people and their future adult years. While all efforts should continue to prevent and treat childhood and adolescent obesity, and mitigate its many complications, care must be taken when addressing body image, weight, shape and size.

There is a clear difference between encouragement and ridicule. Culturally, we continue to navigate the use of humour in daily life from belittling statements.

There is an important opportunity to reduce weight stigma and its consequences by changing how we discuss weight in the media, and in families, and how we respond to bullying in schools. While messaging around healthy weight management must continue, care must be taken when considering how this messaging is dispensed.

This research provides even more rational to parents to be mindful of their parenting techniques and language. While managing binge-eating, poor choices and food related rebellion are extremely challenging, there are evidence-based technique