The Influence of Peer Relationships on Women's Lived Body Experiences Across the Lifespan

• Main Author: Mafrici, Nina
• Other Authors: Piran, Niva
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: peer relationships; body image; developmental; qualitative; life history; body experiences; protective factors; eating disorders; 0622; 0621; 0620
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/43656

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of peers in women's lived experiences in their bodies from childhood to young adulthood. The present study used a qualitative life history methodology to delineate the range of peer processes, both adverse and protective, that affect women's connection to their bodies over time, as well as the meaning women make of these processes, and their internalized reactions to peer influences across a developmental trajectory. In-depth interviews were conducted among fourteen women between the ages of 25 and 35, representing diverse social and cultural backgrounds, as well as current and past eating and body image problems. Women participated in open-ended interviews, using a series of guided questions about their experiences with peers that affected their lived experiences in their bodies, from childhood through to adulthood. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes using a grounded theory methodology. Two interrelated models emerged from the data that clarified ways in which relationships with peers shaped interviewed women's lived experiences in their bodies over time. The Peer Processes Related to Dominant and Alternative Norms, Ideals and Expectations Model addresses peer processes related to the promotion of dominant and alternative norms, ideals and expectations regarding appearance and ways of inhabiting the body as girls and women. The Implications of Peer Processes on Social Power and Acceptance model delineates the ways in which widely sanctioned norms, ideals and expectations pertaining to participants' bodies and appearances, are expressed and internalized through concerns for peer status, power, belonging and acceptance. The research has both clinical and research implications, shedding important light on the ways in which peers enhance, maintain and disrupt girls' and women's connection to their bodies over time.