Body image among young people: negative perceptions and damaging content on social media, combined with pandemic fallout, contribute to a low sense of self-worth and a rise in eating difficulties, stem4’s latest survey reveals.

Putting phones to a positive purpose, and responding to emerging health needs, teenage mental health charity stem4 launches Worth Warrior, a free evidence-based app to help young people overcome low self-worth caused by negative body image.

Three out four (77%) children and young people are now unhappy with how they look

At the same time, nearly half (45%) of all 12–21-year-olds say they are regularly bullied by people they know, or trolled online about their physical appearance: “You looked better when you were anorexic,” “You’re annoying and ugly,” “A creep from a horror film,” “Move out the way there’s no space on bus, walk it and lose some weight.”

Nearly all (97%) young people are now on social media, clocking up an average of 3.65 hours a day on apps that have become very much part of their lives. When seeking to overcome negative feelings of low self-worth about their bodies, they are four times (76%) more likely to turn to social media apps such as TikTok or Instagram than to talk to friends and family (18%).

There is an irony in this, as most (69%) young people also say that social media has a negative effect on their mood, making them feel stressed, anxious, and depressed. Many of them (62%) are worried that their mental health is being damaged by the online content that is pushed at them through social media algorithms, and by the amount of time they are spending on social media. With young people checking their phones compulsively, most (95%) say they feel helpless when it comes to quitting their online habit. These are the important findings of a new survey of 1,024 12-21 year-olds, by youth mental health charity stem4, which says that urgent action is needed in the form of more effective evidence-based early mental health interventions, and research to better understand the potentially compelling impact of social media content and the reinforcement created through algorithms on young people’s engagement and through this, their mental health.

Worth Warrior, a free, safe app, to help young people with body image and eating difficulties

As an antidote to this situation, fighting like with like and using the mobile phone as a force for good, youth mental health charity stem4, with a grant from the NIHR, has created the Worth Warrior app. It is a free evidence-based, mobile phone app to help young people overcome issues of negative body image, low self-worth, and related early-stage eating difficulties or eating disorders.

The Worth Warrior app, recommended for ages 12 and above, has been developed by Consultant Clinical Psychologist Dr. Nihara Krause, CEO and founder of youth mental health charity stem4, in collaboration with young people and clinician feedback. Using principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Eating Disorders (CBT-E), it provides a range of helpful activities and information, based on the notion that eating and body-related issues can be helped through learning to challenge and change negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviours towards body image, and improve underlying low self-worth.

Download the Worth Warrior app for free on iOS and Android.

[Source: stem4 survey of 1,024 regionally representative British young people aged from 12 to 21 conducted by Survey Goo, 21st to 27th November 2022]

Want to read more?

Read the full results in the press release.