How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

Abstract

Although media exposure has been related to cognitive preoccupation with appearance, research rarely investigated adolescents' behavioral self-sexualization. To address this gap, the present study among 12- to 16-year-olds (N = 1527; 50.2% girls) in Austria, Belgium, Spain, and South-Korea (1) investigates whether different types of media use relate to self-sexualization, (2) explores the explanatory value of rewarded appearance ideals, and (3) considers culture and gender as moderating factors. Despite cultural variation, a general trend of increasing self-sexualization with social media use and magazine reading appeared across the countries. Moreover, women's magazine reading and rewards were related to self-sexualization among all the girls across the countries, which suggests that girls may be more vulnerable to the examined effects. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of the unique contribution of specific media genres to youth's self-sexualization and points at the importance of social media use in girls' and boys' engagement in sexualizing appearance behaviors across four countries.

Estado de la cuestión sobre la sexualización infantil en el entorno digital y propuestas de alfabetización mediática

“…Sexualización de las niñas; estereotipos; Internet; alfabetización mediática. ISSN: 1696-019X / e-ISSN: 2386-3978 Karan, 2017Trekels, Karsay, Eggermont and Vandenbosch, 2018). The European model of child protection emphasises education as the fundamental backbone of legislation and policies oriented toward the holistic development of online security based on the concept that cyberspace is "something radically ethical" (García-Gutiérrez, 2015: 134).…”

“…Online media and social networks have increasingly allowed children to play an active role as cultural producers in "participatory and collaborative contexts" (Eleá and Miklos, 2017: 10). This in itself is positive, but it becomes negative when girls in particular are involved in behaviour aimed at altering their appearance (Trekels et al, 2018), resulting from the idea that women can show their femininity through fashion and beauty products, or when children use the networks in a context of "content marketing" (Marôpo et al, 2017: 74) in which activities to promote beauty products and other adultoriented goods are directed by sponsors and might be considered child labour. When they become popular influencers of their peers, children are hired by brands to upload images of their products on social networks: "comments on children's products, opening gift-wrapped products or toys, challenges among peers, and adult series on TV or on the web" (Marôpo et al, 2017: 65).…”

“…The research by Trekels et al. (2018) on the appearance of self-sexualisation among adolescents in Belgium, Austria and South Korea concludes that digital media lead to higher levels of self-objectification than traditional media.…”

“…Self-objectification has been mainly influenced by social factors, and an example of this can be found in magazine models. European women appear more sexualized than American women, whereas the American models are more sexualized than those of Asian journals (Trekels et al, 2018). In a context in which the media is a source of learning about ideal images, women's magazines and the rewards involved are factors of self-sexualisation among all girls (op.…”

“…A multicultural study on the use of media (videos, films, magazines, TV and social networks) for adolescents from 12-16 years of age in Spain, Belgium, Austria and South Korea emphasizes a general trend toward increasing self-sexualisation through the use of social networks and magazine consumption in all countries (Trekels et al, 2018). Although the research is related to adolescents, it emphasizes that individuals such as girls or pre-adolescents are more vulnerable to this process than other groups such as boys or adolescents.…”