A Study to assess the effectiveness of Interactive Bibliotherapy on Reduction of Body Image Dissatisfaction among High School Girls (13–16 Years) in Selected Schools, Mysore

The enormous influence of the media toward urban population regarding woman's ideal body image causes women especially the adolescent girls to experience body image dissatisfaction. Studies have revealed that body image dissatisfaction could lead to serious problems such as low selfesteem, depression, and eating disorders that even might lead to death. Therefore, some solution to cope with this problem is needed, one of which is bibliotherapy, a kind of therapy using an activity of reading selected literatures or materials to promote mental health.

The aim of the study was to assess the effectiveness of interactive bibliotherapy on reduction of body image dissatisfaction among high school girls (13–16 years) in selected schools, Mysore.

True experimental pre- test post- test only design, was adopted for the study. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the high school girls, 30 each in experimental and control group. The level of body image dissatisfaction was assessed by using self-administered body image dissatisfaction scale. Bibliotherapy was given to high school girls regarding reduction of body image dissatisfaction.

The analysis of the findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean pre - test and post- test body image dissatisfaction scores which was statistically tested using paired ‘t’ test (t(29)=6.10; p<0.05) and was found to be significant at 0.05 level of significance. The significance of difference between the post-test knowledge scores among experimental and control group was statistically tested using independent ‘t’ test (t(58)= 5.74; p< 0.05) and was found to be significant at 0.05 level of significance and inferred that bibliotherapy was effective in reducing body image dissatisfaction among high school girls. The results of the study also revealed that the level of body image dissatisfaction among high school girls had no significant association with their selected personal variables.

Therefore, the study concluded that interactive bibliotherapy was effective in reducing the level of body image dissatisfaction among high school girls. Hence, the school authority should give importance to reading in improving the mental health of the girls and thereby enabling them to be a fruitful and a healthy citizen and also improvement in academic performances.