Exposure to the Mass Media and Weight Concerns Among Girls

Sex Roles, 2003

Research has indicated female adolescents are more vulnerable to body image disturbance than male adolescents. However, scholars have begun to examine the increased emphasis on muscularity for men. The current supposition is that a drive to be muscular may be as dangerous for adolescent boys as a drive to be thin is for adolescent girls. Sports, health, and fitness magazines may be a meaningful training ground for adolescents to learn the importance of muscularity and the methods to obtain these perfect sports bodies. Magazines also reinforce the rewards that accompany the attainment of “perfect” bodies. Nearly 400 high school and college students from an urban area in the Midwest were surveyed to test the extent to which reading fashion, sports, and health/fitness magazines is related to body image and eating disturbances, including the added dimension of muscularity. Results indicate that magazine reading, social comparisons, and critical body image processing are important predictors of body image and eating disturbances for adolescent boys and girls.

2007

Sopin Chantakloi, my oral defense committee for their valuable comments and suggestions. My sincere thanks are also given to many individuals; friends, colleagues and classmates who are not mentioned here, but made my educational experience a success. Lastly, I offer my deepest thanks to my parents and my family for their profound love, care, and encouragement that have inspired me to achieve my goals.

Womens Health Issues, 2011

Objectives: Correlational research has found associations between magazine and television exposure and body dissatisfaction. However, this relation is not direct, and various psychological variables may moderate and/or mediate this relation, such as awareness and internalization of the thin ideals, comparing oneself with ideal body image or selfesteem, as well as the patient's body mass index (BMI). The aim of this study was to assess the association between magazine and television exposure and body dissatisfaction among Spanish adolescents by gender. A second aim was to determine the predictors of body dissatisfaction by gender. Methods: A cross-sectional national survey of 1,165 Spanish secondary students aged 14 to 16 years was conducted. Frequency exposure and type of TV program/magazine as well as other psychological variables, such as thin-ideal internalization and self-esteem, were associated with high levels of body dissatisfaction (BD) based on a cutoff point of 16 or above on the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) by gender. Multiple linear regressions were used to examine associations between body dissatisfaction, mass media topic exposure, BMI, and psychological variables. Results: Mass media exposure to a specific kind of content, rather than to total exposure frequency, was more associated with body dissatisfaction in females versus males. In males, five factors accounted for 35% of the total variance of body dissatisfaction and were associated with lower TV and magazine exposure to fitness topics and lower self-esteem and with greater BMI, disordered eating behaviors, and awareness of the thin ideal. For females, high body dissatisfaction was associated with greater internalization of the thin ideal, disordered eating behaviors, BMI, and lower self-esteem (54% of total variance explained). Conclusion: There does not seem to be a clear association between media exposure and body dissatisfaction. Further research is necessary to enhance our understanding of how the media's role affects adolescents' awareness and internalization of the thin ideals, which may in turn lead to the development of body dissatisfaction and unhealthy weight control behaviors.

European Eating Disorders Review, 2003

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between media exposure and body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in a more finely grained way than in previous studies. Method: A sample of 104 female undergraduate students completed measures of both magazine and television exposure, as well as measures of body dissatisfaction, disordered eating, awareness and internalization of societal ideals. Results: While both media exposure variables were correlated with body dissatisfaction, the pattern of correlations was very different with the other variables. In particular, the amount of magazine reading, but not television watching, was positively correlated with internalization of thin ideals. On the other hand, time spent watching television was negatively correlated with awareness of sociocultural ideals and self-esteem. Discussion: It was concluded that the processes through which television and magazines impact on body dissatisfaction are different. The relationship between magazine exposure and body dissatisfaction is mediated by internalization of thin ideals, which is not the case for television exposure.

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 2016

Objectives Body image in the mass media promotes an unrealistic picture of body shape that leads to body dissatisfaction among adolescentsQuery. Therefore, the study presented in this paper aimed to assess the association between mass media and adolescents' weight concerns and perceptions of body weight and shape. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted on school adolescents aged between 15 and 18 years during the academic year 2013-2014. Multistage stratified sampling method was used. The number of participants in the study was 795 students: 400 boys and 395 girls. Results All participants have a common behavior in rarely reading magazines, but they spend more than 2 h in watching television or less than 3 h using the internet. However, most of obese/non-obese adolescents, boys or girls, have shown high influence (p \ 0.05) of reading magazines on the subject of dieting to lose weight. Conclusion While obese students read more magazines on dieting to lose weight, other mass media did not show the same results on weight concerns and body shape among Jordanian adolescents.

Sex Roles, 1997

Three aspects of a sociocultural influence on appearance-media exposure, awareness of societal ideals, and internalization of sociocultural messages-were assessed in college females (75% White, 7% Black, 10% Hispanic, 7% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1% other) and related to measures of body image disturbance, eating dysfunction, and overall self-esteem. The exposure variable consisted of an empirically derived index of coded body shape images from magazines specifically selected because of their high readership in the tested sample of females. Awareness of societal pressures regarding appearance and internalization of these messages were measured with the two subscales of the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire. Correlational and regression analyses failed to find any relationship between simple exposure and indices of body image, eating dysfunction, and self-esteem. Awareness of societal pressures was a significant predictor in regression analyses; however, internalization of social standards of appearance accounted for significant and substantial levels of variance beyond that explained by awareness. The findings are discussed in light of recent cognitive-behavioral and psychoeducational interventions for body image disturbance. A large number of theories have been offered to explain the development and maintenance of body image disturbance (Heinberg, 1996). Perhaps the most empirically supported approach is a sociocultural model, which identifies social pressure as the impetus behind an individual's need to conform to body shape standards (Fallon, 1990; Stormer & Thompson, 1996).

European Eating Disorders Review, 1995

It has been shown that fashion magazines have an age- and stimulus-specific effect on the body size estimation of non-eating-disordered adolescent and adult females. This study examines whether photographs of thin fashion models have similar effects on female body dissatisfaction. The results indicate that adolescent girls tend to respond to fashion images by showing greater body dissatisfaction than adults, and that both groups respond more to pictures of adults than to those of adolescents. Greater adolescent dissatisfaction was related to increased age, weight and bulimic tendencies. Theoretical implications are considered.

Media Psychology, 2010

This article reviews research on the effects of television and magazines on body image and on disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in females. Evidence from different types of studies in the fields of eating disorders, media psychology, health psychology, and mass communication indicates that mass media are an extremely important source of information and reinforcement in relation to the nature of the thin beauty ideal, its importance, and how to attain it. Although considerable research remains to be done, evidence is accumulating that repeated exposure to media and to both direct and indirect (via media's effects on peers, parents, coaches, physicians, etc.) pressures from media to be thin constitute risk factors for body dissatisfaction, concerns over weight and disordered eating behaviors in adolescent girls and young women. To guide further research, as well as the prevention and treatment of disordered eating, we present a figural summary of media effects that integrates moderating and mediating factors such as internalization of the thin beauty ideal, social comparison, and activation of the thinness schema. We argue that risk factor research, prevention, and treatment will benefit from systematic research designed to clarify how the impact of various mass media is shaped by source and receiver/perceiver factors.

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2006

Internalization of the thin body ideal is considered by many to account for the relationship between media exposure and disordered eating among girls and young women, but almost all supporting research has employed adolescent and adult samples. Using longitudinal panel survey data collected from 257 preadolescent girls at 2 points in time 1 year apart, we tested relationships between self-reported television and magazine exposure at wave 1 and current (prepubescent) and future (postpubescent) body ideals and disordered eating at wave 2. Controlling age, race, perceived body size, and body ideals and disordered eating measured at wave 1, television viewing at wave 1 predicted increased disordered eating and a thinner postpubescent body ideal at wave 2. In contrast, none of the media variables predicted a thinner prepubescent body ideal at wave 2. These findings suggest that the thin-ideal internalization construct needs refinement to enhance its developmental sensitivity.

Topic is media influence on body image, write a Methods section that is about 4 pages long where you will assess and evaluate the methods of research. To understand the connection between media use and body dissatisfaction, we have to juxtapose media factors such as television and social comparisons with media figures with other environmental factors (peer and parental attitudes) to examine their connections to internalization of the thin ideal and body dissatisfaction. The facts are the same in every part of the world, as a result of globalization we provide and receive the same information. In this way we can outline for example some certain things that are repeated in every corner of the social world. Thin models and actresses appear to be the standardin today's media, ever-present on television, and in magazines, movies,and Internet sites. Advertisements targetingyoung women feature thin and beautiful models in desirable circumstances in order to sell clothing, accessories, and other products. There is a mediated normfor body image in present-day culture, and it is characterized by bodies that are extremely thin. This mediated thin-ideal is present in mainstream media, and mainstream media are a source women turn to for information about how to look. Consequently, women who are heavy viewers of thin-ideal media may develop the attitude that thinness is socially desirable, experience greater body dissatisfaction, and engage in weight loss behaviors and cosmetic surgery in an attempt to measure up to the standard they observe. Additionally, there exists a weight prejudice in our society that is reinforced not only by media, but also by social interactions with peers and parents. Thinness often has a very positive connotation, one that denotes success and social desirability .Attractive people achieve more in our society; they are viewed as more successfuland happier with their lives. Therefore, some women may see their body shape and weight as a sort of " measuring stick " of social value. Method taken from the American Communication Journal 2012 SPRING (Volume 14, Issue 2) Procedure Participants were drawn from communication courses at a large southeastern university and offered course credit for participation. Participants in two courses were given a Web address for completing an approximately 15-minute survey via their course website. Online results were filtered such thatsurveys with a completion time of less than seven minutes were discarded due to fidelity concerns. Additionally, participants from twoother courses completed a paper-andpencilversion of the survey under researcher supervision.Independent samples t-tests comparing the online and in-class samples' responses for the independent and dependent variables revealed no significant differences. Participants The survey was distributed to 417 undergraduate students. Of the 417 participants, 68.3% were female. For the purpose of this study, only female results were used for analysis (n=285).The age of the female sample ranged from 18 to 37 (M=20.0, SD=2.22). The ethnic makeup of the female sample included 65.7% Caucasian, 17.7% Latino, 5.8% African American, 4.9% Asian, and 7% multiracial or other.