Body Dissatisfaction in College Women and Their Mothers: Cohort Effects, Developmental Effects, and the Influences of Body Size, Sexism, and the Thin Body Ideal

Experiencing Sexism and Young Women's Body Esteem

“…Calogero and Jost (2011) found that after women read benevolently sexist statements on a questionnaire, they reported increased intention to engage in appearance management behavior than did women not exposed to such statements, consistent with Franzoi (2001) and Forbes et al (2005) findings.…”

“…Consistent with this argument, Franzoi (2001) found that young women's hostile sexist beliefs were negatively related to their sexual attractiveness body esteem, while Forbes et al (2005) found that for mothers, but not daughters, increases in hostile sexism were negatively associated with their body esteem. Furthermore, Forbes, Collinsworth, Jobe, Braun, & Wise (2007) found that hostile sexism and hostility toward women, but not benevolent sexism, were positively correlated with the belief that it is important for women to be thin.…”

“…Based on previous research by Franzoi (2001) and Forbes et al (2005), we expect that familial endorsement of benevolent sexism will be positively associated with their daughter's body esteem. That is, parents who endorse these benevolently sexist beliefs are likely to interact with their daughters in ways that praise their traditional feminine qualities (including their looks) AMBIVALENT SEXISM AND YOUNG WOMEN'S BODY ESTEEM 9 and lavish on them paternalistic warmth and adoration.…”

“…Women's endorsement of benevolent sexism was also associated with use of cosmetic products prior to going on a date with a man, but not use of such products generally. Interestingly, Forbes et al (2005) found that college women with high benevolent sexist beliefs were more likely than those with low levels of benevolent sexism to believe that other women of their age preferred larger sized bodies. Among the mothers of these same college women, benevolent sexism was positively correlated with their body esteem for weight and physical conditioning; however, this association was not found for the college daughters.…”

Impact of Immigration on Native and Ethnic Consumer Identity via Body Image

“…This enabled control for a cohort or generational effect. The definition of a cohort as used in this research is the generational difference caused by the socio-cultural variables unique to their time in which the different generations were raised, i.e., a mother and daughter would have been exposed to different image ideals during their formative years (Forbes et al, 2005). Moreover, it was a requirement for the older Filipino and older Indian group members to have been born, and spent their formative years in the Philippines, and India, respectively.…”