essages to be thin, lean, and angular, [girls'] bodies are gaining fat and acquiring curves" (Golden, 1994, p. 58). Consequently, adolescent girls are especially susceptible to eating disorders and related health dysfunctions.
School experience also present self-esteem problems for adolescents. Adolescence is a period when students transition from elementary school to junior high school and from junior high to senior high. These transitions represent important status changes for the teenager. The individual must re-establish himself or herself at each succeeding level of school. Often the transition means changing to an entirely new school at a different location. The success experienced in one level of school may be difficult to maintain as the student faces the challenges of the succeeding level. Some sociologists contend that school has a greater impact on adolescent self-esteem than body changes.
Because schools influence adolescent self-esteem, it is important for teachers to actively intervene in countering negative student self-concepts,
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