Harmful Effects of Children Beauty Contests

Beauty contests are criticized by child psychologists as damaging a child's priorities and perceptions. Children who compete in beauty pageants are often between the age of 2 and 10, but they can be even younger. According to psychologist Martina M. Cartwright, these participants often have self-esteem issues later in life.

Body Image

• Children often become increasingly concerned about body image by being placed against each other in beauty contests. According to Carleton Kendrick, a private practice family therapist, media already bombard children with an array of superficial cues as to how they should look and behave. Beauty contests only increase the problem. Though judges in the contests also look at a child's talent, the contests are called "beauty" pageants and are designed to rate children on how beautiful they are.

Eating Disorders

• Children can develop anorexia or bulimia at a young age or one of the conditions can develop later on because of their participation in beauty contests. The severely critical childhood creates in them a drive toward unattainable goals, according to Cartwright. This is at the heart of a dissatisfaction with body image and a trend toward eating disorders. Cartwright, who cited a 2005 report that revealed contestants have a higher rate of body dissatisfaction, dubs the condition as "The Princess Syndrome."

Rivalry

• While the mothers and daughters often smile at each other and speak kindly, a deeper feeling of hate is brewing inside. The child may begin to see her competitors as enemies and this perception can follow into everyday life, creating a divide in all of her human interactions. According to clinical psychologist Lucia Grasaru, the type of interaction is "dissimulation as a form of interaction, which can be used outside contests too and become a habit."

Benefits

• Grasaru went on to say that while psychological problems can persist long after a child has dedicated the hours necessary to prepare and perform in a beauty contest, an encouragement to compete, spend time with mom and to be dedicated to a hobby are healthy aspects of beauty contests. She warned, however, that "serious psychological problems are just around the corner." Amidst much of the criticism, parents told MSNBC in 2009 that the pageants build their children's confidence and don't distort their self-image.