sivity in Dove Confident Me program
Education News | Page 27 of dance as a competitive dancer and dance teacher , Kelsey says , " I have witnessed many ways that an individual ’ s feelings about their body and self-esteem can influence their mental well-being . Because of these experiences , I have had a longstanding interest in promoting body confidence and self-esteem ."
In a Counselling Girls and Women course taught by Dr . Bree Fiissell , Kelsey says , " We often discussed topics such as self-esteem , body confidence , body image , and the impact of the current societal emphasis on appearance on how women and girls feel about themselves . Through these discussions , I became further interested in how body confidence could be promoted to prevent the development of mental illnesses such as eating disorders , depression , or anxiety . Because of my longstanding interest in body image and confidence , I began to look into how I could transition these interests into my own research and that is how I landed on my own thesis project where I explored the effects of the Dove Confident Me program aimed at improving body confidence in adolescents ."
Through her research on the effects of the Dove Confident Me program , Kelsey discovered " a gap in gender inclusivity , which may limit the ability for the program to improve selfesteem and body confidence . These findings were unexpected , but they identified an important gap in bodybased education programs that needs to be addressed to ensure these programs are actually meeting the needs of adolescents struggling with body confidence today ."
This unexpected finding changed the course of her entire thesis . Kelsey says , " I think this goes to show that even when research doesn ’ t go as planned , there is a lot of value in exploring where the research takes you to ensure meaningful results to this field of research ." Identifying this lack in the program ended up being the high point of the research process . Kelsey says , " The highlight for me came at the end of my data analysis phase when I was able to recognize that even though the project did not go as planned , we were able to identify a really important issue and gap that is currently not being pursued in research in this area ."
As a recommendation from her findings , Kelsey says , " If researchers or educators wish to improve body confidence in their classrooms and adolescents today , we have to play close attention to the gender dynamics of these classrooms and ensure the material being taught is not promoting the exclusion of any individual ’ s gender identities ."
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