An interdisciplinary educational intervention about self-perception of body image

Adolescence is a critical stage of development that affects body image and self esteem. In the context of teaching nutrition in secondary school, an interdisciplinary educational intervention of two different subjects was conducted mingling ancient Greek and Home Economics. The aim of the study was to examine the students’ self-perception of body image and therefore to investigate if an interdisciplinary educational intervention would improve it. The short-term educational intervention of six teaching hours included the Aesop’s myth “The beauty is not everything». Pedagogical methods, such as experiential, teamwork and activity-centric were applied. The students’ body satisfaction was assessed by a questionnaire. The sample of the research was fifty-five 12-year-old students that answered a questionnaire about body satisfaction, before and after the educational intervention. The mean score of satisfaction varied from “enough” to “very much” for all students, higher than previous research. No statistically significant correlation was found between sex and body satisfaction, between sex and specific parts of the body, sex and height and between sex and weight in view of body satisfaction before and after the educational intervention. Even though the research didn’t show any statistically significant improvement of students’ body image satisfaction after the short term intervention, students enjoyed the learning process, the educational benefits of narration and realized the importance of positive body image for every aspect of life. Clearly, further investigation is needed to assert the effectiveness of educational interventions on students’ body image. Interdisciplinary educational interventions could contribute to students’ health literacy.