Examining socio-cultural factors and attachment characteristics determining the body image among female university students - Prevention opportunities of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in educational institutes.

In the prevention of body image disturbances and eating disorders, the environment of schoolplays a significant role as the eating disorder risk age groups are easily accessed and addressed (O'Dea, 2005). The incidence and possible consequences of body dissatisfaction are challenging for the teachers at each level of training institutes. However, in Hungary, as far as we know, there have been no preventive programs supporting the positive body imageor preventing eating disordersin the school environment. According to international examples, the institution's staff can do a lot to support the mental health of the studentsand to equip them against the socio-cultural messages that are negatively affectthe body image. This not only involves knowledge transfer and skill improvementembedded in subjects and workshops, but also global attitudinal changes of the global institute, e.g.improving tolerance and the prevention of school bullying (Kulin andDarvay, 2012;O'Dea, 2003; O'Dea, 2005). In school health education and health promotion, the prevention of body disorders and eating disorders deserves special attention, as the existence of physical dissatisfaction may have serious consequences for physical and mental health, such as depression, low self-esteem, plastic surgeries, steroid use, smoking and eating disorders (Stice , 2002; Field et al., 2001; Cafri et al., 2005; Grogan, 2016). Early well-designed prevention programs can thus prevent problems related to physical and mental health or poor academic performance(e.g.Mikkilä, Lahti-Koski, Pietinen, Virtanen and Rimpelä, 2003).Many factors play a role in the development and maintenance of the body's dissatisfaction. The present dissertation focuses on the role of the sociocultural factors, e.g. media, peers and parents, and the effect of individual attachment characteristics regarding the body image of young adult women. However, the school's environmentis not negligible in shaping the body image and self-esteem: direct and indirect messages from teachers and peers, through modeling processes of their attitudes towards theirbody shape, body weight, and food. Thus increasing the teachers’ self-knowledge plays an important role in the process of effective prevention (Elek,1999; Lelesz, 2001)