BODY IDENTITY: CONSTRUCTION IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND IMPORTANCE - ARTE - 2024

The body identity is the image that a person is formed itself from its various physical features, as their level of athleticism, the figure or image. It is part of what is known as "self-concept", the idea that each of us has about himself, his capacities, skills and value as an individual.

Like other similar psychological elements, body identity is not static, but is actively constructed throughout the individual's life based on their experiences and the way in which they evolve. Thus, a person may have poor body perception as a young man and improve it over time, or vice versa.

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On the other hand, body identity has a very close relationship with self-esteem and well-being with oneself, especially among the younger population. In times like adolescence, there is great pressure to fit within certain beauty standards both among men and women, which can generate a lot of anxiety for an individual.

According to research in this regard, body identity among the youngest is built mainly in areas such as school or institute. Specifically, the physical education subject plays a very important role in this regard. In this article we will study how this psychological phenomenon is formed and why it is so important.

Construction of body identity in physical education

Body identity is built for the first time during childhood and adolescence. When a child is very young, he is not fully aware of his physical appearance or his bodily capabilities. However, little by little he begins to understand what his limitations and abilities are, and he begins to compare himself with the people around him.

The environment that most influences the construction of bodily identity during childhood is school. Within an educational center, children begin to realize that they are different from their peers in many ways. Depending on how these differences are, they will have a positive or negative impact on your self-concept.

The body dimension is of great importance in our lives. This occurs in a particularly marked way during childhood, so that children and adolescents will base a large part of their self-esteem on their body identity. Thus, the school and the institute can cause all kinds of difficulties in those children or young people who do not fit into the usual canons of beauty.

One of the most critical areas in this regard is the physical education subject. For most of their time children are sitting and working the most intellectual part of their abilities. However, during physical education classes they have to face purely physical challenges. In many cases, this will be the only time they will have to.

Influence of physical education

The physical education subject is essential for the little ones, as it teaches them to explore the limits of their body and allows them to acquire physical skills that they would probably never achieve otherwise. However, it is also an environment in which children are especially vulnerable.

And it is that in the field of body identity there is a very uncomfortable reality: we are not all the same. While some people are born with a series of highly developed physical capacities and have a knack for everything related to sport, others are at the opposite extreme and will have difficulty accomplishing any task that requires dexterity or strength.

Of course, throughout life it is possible to train all these skills; But during childhood, children are not very aware of their potential for improvement and tend to judge themselves harshly based on how their peers are. So if a child thinks he or she is below the rest in terms of physique, their body image will take a severe hit.

Some experts believe that this is a good reason to remove physical education from schools, due to the frustration it can generate for some children. Others, on the contrary, think that it is good for children to learn to manage the most complicated emotions as soon as possible, and believe that physical education can help them a lot in this regard.

Of course, some exceptional contexts require the intervention of a responsible adult, such as parents or teachers. The clearest example of this is that of a scenario of bullying due to bodily differences, which can leave very important consequences in children who suffer it.

Why is body identity important?

As we have already seen, body identity is one of the elements that most determines a person's level of self-esteem, especially during childhood and adolescence. At the same time, it is also something that at first glance seems immutable: if a person has someone's identity in poor shape, it will be difficult for him to change this fact.

In fact, many experts believe that one of the main causes of low self-esteem during the first years of life is precisely the presence of a bad body identity. Children who consider themselves unattractive or unattractive, or those who have real physical problems, tend to feel much less satisfied with who they are.

For this reason, it is essential to teach young people the importance of working on their self-esteem and making it independent of what is uncontrollable. At the same time, it is also necessary to convey to them the possibility of improving their own physical condition, in such a way that body identity and self-esteem can be directly reinforced.

Finally, something very important in this regard is to carry out interventions to prevent, as far as possible, cases of bullying for reasons related to the physical appearance of students and their athletic abilities, in such a way that the impact of these issues on Children's self-esteem is lowered as much as possible.

References

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3. "Body identity" in: Glossaries. Retrieved on: March 10, 2020 from Glossaries: glosarios.servidor-alicante.com.
4. "Why is body identity important?" in: Inevery Crea. Retrieved on: March 10, 2020 from Inevery Crea: ineverycrea.mx.
5. "Self - image" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: March 10, 2020 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.