NCJ Number
214823
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2006 Pages: 153-163
Date Published
April 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
Using longitudinal panel survey data collected from 257 preadolescent girls at 2 time points 1 year apart, this study tested relationships between self-report television and magazine exposure at time 1 and current (prepubescent) and future (postpubescent) body ideals and disordered eating at time 2.
Abstract
Controlling for age, race, perceived body size, and body ideals and disordered eating measured at time 1, television viewing at time 1 predicted increased disordered eating and a thinner postpubescent body ideal at time 2. In contrast, none of the media variables predicted a thinner prepubescent body ideal at time 2. The data thus suggest that television exposure fosters a subsequent tendency to idealize a thin adult body and to engage in disordered eating, independent of initial ideal adult body size and disordered eating symptoms. The authors recommend that future research in this area include separate measures of current and future body ideals so that the developmental processes involved in the internalization of the thin ideal that stems from mass-media exposure may be better understood. The sample consisted of second-, third-, and fourth-grade girls in three middle-class midwestern communities. The schools were preselected on the basis of their racial diversity. In order to measure girls' perceptions of their actual body shape and their personal body ideals, they were administered two pictorial scales. They also completed the Children's Eating Attitudes Test, which measured symptoms of disordered eating. Television exposure was measured by self-reports on the number of hours they watched television. Magazine exposure was also measured by self-reports. 2 tables and 45 references