Empirical studies in the Fashion Therapies (FT) have grown rapidly in the last few years, documenting their negative issues have been widely associated with body image, distorted ideal body, media effects, and irrational consumption. Social media has contributed heavily to popularizing the unrealistic beauty ideals that leads to body dissatisfaction in adolescents. However, current studies have uncovered the positive impact on a wide range of psychotherapy outcomes. In light of this, researchers have become increasingly interested in the positive side of fashion phenomena that could be applied for psychotherapeutic purposes. However, it remains unclear how and why the FT have positive effects, and mechanisms account for these changes. Research that specifically focuses on the therapeutic factors and/or mechanisms of change in FT is only beginning to emerge. Therefore, this study aims to identify the types of fashion therapy and its impacts on mental health, to explore the impact of physical appearance management(PAM) from FT on college-aged females' peer pressure and to examine the development process of positive self-identity and sense of belonging by PAM for college-aged females. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods will be adopted in order to have a deeper understanding towards the phenomenon concerned in this paper. A PAM experiment, acting as a participant observation, along with questionnaires and in-depth interviews will be conducted to explore the impact of PAM on their peer pressure followed with focus group to further examine the development process of positive self-identity and sense of belonging.

Authors:
Pei Ee Ng, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Pei Ee Ng is a University Postgraduate Student at Institute of Creative Design Industries, National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan

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