Media exposure, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating: television and magazines are not the same!

Abstract

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.

Media Influence on Drive for Thinness and Drive for Muscularity

“…In contrast, while magazine consumption in men was also related to internalization of and body comparison to general media ideals, none of the body image factors correlated significantly with television consumption (Miller & Halberstadt, 2005). The latter finding -that magazines play a more powerful role in predicting internalization of and body comparison to media ideals is consistent with Tiggemann's (2003) work with female Australian adolescents, which found that magazines exert a more powerful influence on body image than does television viewing. According to research conducted in Canada (Vaughan & Fouts, 2003) and Australia (Tiggemann, 2003), magazines -due to their requirement of a stronger emotional investment (i.e., consumers read this material to gain advice about beauty, fitness, grooming and style rather than simply for entertainment) -may be more detrimental to body image than television.…”

“…The latter finding -that magazines play a more powerful role in predicting internalization of and body comparison to media ideals is consistent with Tiggemann's (2003) work with female Australian adolescents, which found that magazines exert a more powerful influence on body image than does television viewing. According to research conducted in Canada (Vaughan & Fouts, 2003) and Australia (Tiggemann, 2003), magazines -due to their requirement of a stronger emotional investment (i.e., consumers read this material to gain advice about beauty, fitness, grooming and style rather than simply for entertainment) -may be more detrimental to body image than television. This suggests that in a male and female college student population in the United States, television will be used primarily for entertainment and viewers do not seem to be as affected by thin television models and actors (Harrison & Cantor, 1997).…”

“…We hypothesized that drive for thinness in both U.S. collegiate women (Botta, 1999) and men would relate to body comparison to/ internalization of general media images, and that drive for muscularity would correlate with body comparison to athletic images (Karazsia & Crowther, 2008). We also expected that both drive for thinness and drive for muscularity would correlate with societal pressure to have the perfect body (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2004), use of media for information on how to meet body ideal schemas (Levine & Smolak, 1996, 2005, magazine consumption (Tiggemann, 2003), and television viewing (Harrison & Cantor, 1997).…”

“…2) As a study of Australian collegiate women found that women spend an average of 2 hours a month looking at magazines and nearly 12 hours a week watching television (Tiggemann, 2003), it would seem that television viewing might be more detrimental to body image due to the sheer number of hours college women spend watching TV. However, research suggests that reading magazines (Tiggemann, 2003) -due to their requirement of a stronger emotional investment -may be more detrimental to body dissatisfaction than viewing television, despite the difference in time allotment. It may be that whereas magazines are used for information, television is primarily used for entertainment (Harrison & Cantor, 1997).…”

Symposium on ‘Nutrition and health in children and adolescents’ Session 3: Eating behaviour and early indicators of metabolic syndrome Motivation for eating behaviour in adolescent girls: the body beautiful

“…However, it does reinforce the idea that in this context magazine and TV engagement are functionally-different activities. Tiggemann (2003), for example, argues that women with high body dissatisfaction may be more likely to buy and read magazines for their explicit depictions of thinness and advice on appearance enhancement. In this respect, their engagement is purposive and active, something very different from the entertainment value of TV viewing.…”