Elsevier

Body Image

Volume 1, Issue 4, December 2004, Pages 351-361
Body Image

Idealized media images and adolescent body image: “comparing” boys and girls

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2004.10.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Sociocultural theories of body image suggest that body dissatisfaction results from unrealistic societal beauty ideals, and one way of transmitting these ideals is through the mass media. The present research aimed to examine the effect of exposure to images of idealized beauty in the media on adolescent girls’ and boys’ body image. The participants (595 adolescents) viewed television commercials containing either images of the thin ideal for women, images of the muscular ideal for men, or non-appearance television commercials. Body dissatisfaction was measured before and after commercial viewing. It was found that exposure to idealized commercials led to increased body dissatisfaction for girls but not for boys. Idealized commercials led to increased negative mood and appearance comparison for girls and boys, although the effect on appearance comparison was stronger for girls. Further, participants high on appearance investment reported greater appearance comparison after viewing idealized commercials than those less strongly invested in their appearance. The results suggest the immediate impact of the media on body image is both stronger and more normative for girls than for boys, but that some boys may also be affected.

Introduction

Body dissatisfaction, which is common among women of all ages, is especially prevalent during adolescence when body image is “the most important component” of adolescent girls’ self-esteem (Levine & Smolak, 2002a, p. 77). Arguably the most likely cause of body dissatisfaction among adolescent girls is the current unrealistic standard of female beauty which places an inordinate emphasis on thinness (Fallon, 1990, Heinberg, 1996; Rodin, Silberstein, & Striegel-Moore, 1985), and which is unattainable for most girls (Ackard & Peterson, 2001; Rosenblum & Lewis, 1999). This ideal standard of beauty is conveyed to individuals via a number of sources including family, peers and the mass media (van den Berg, Thompson, Obremski-Brandon, & Coovert, 2002). The mass media, which include magazines and television, are often regarded as the single strongest influencing factor on adolescent body image (e.g., Irving, 1990, p. 239; Levine & Smolak, 1996, p. 238; Mazur, 1986; Raphael & Lacey, 1992; Silverstein, Perdue, Peterson, & Kelly, 1986).

A small number of studies have examined the impact of media images on the body image of adolescents. Correlational studies show that adolescent girls who read more magazines and watch more television report greater body dissatisfaction (Anderson, Huston, Schmitt, Linebarger, & Wright, 2001; Botta, 1999, Field et al., 1999, Harrison, 2000, Harrison, 2001; Hofchire & Greenberg, 2002; Levine, Smolak, & Hayden, 1994). Experimental studies show that exposure to idealised media images leads to increased state body dissatisfaction for girls (Durkin & Paxton, 2002; Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002; Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2002, 2003; Stice, Spangler, & Agras, 2001). To date, however, only a few correlational studies have included boys (Anderson et al., 2001, Botta, 2003, Harrison, 2000, Harrison, 2001; Morry & Staska, 2001). While a small number of experimental studies have found a negative impact of muscular-ideal magazine images on college-aged men (Grogan, Williams, & Connor, 1996; Leit, Pope, & Gray, 2002; Ogden & Mundray, 1996, but see Kalodner, 1997), no experimental studies of the media's immediate impact on the body image of adolescent boys have been conducted. Although boys’ body dissatisfaction is typically less severe than for girls (e.g., Feingold & Mazzella, 1998; Field, Colditz, & Peterson, 1997; Garner, 1997, Muth and Cash, 1997; Thomas, Ricciardelli, & Williams, 2000), they too express dissatisfaction with their body weight and appearance (Cohane & Pope, 2001; Levine & Smolak, 2002a; Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2001). Such dissatisfaction has been linked to a number of negative consequences including the development of dieting, excessive exercise, and low self-esteem (Olivardia, 2002).

Like girls, the most likely cause of body dissatisfaction among boys is an unrealistic appearance ideal (Labre, 2002, Mishkind et al., 1986; Westmoreland-Corson & Andersen, 2002). The current ideal male body is lean but highly muscular, characterised by a “well-developed chest and arms, with wide shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist” (Pope et al., 2000, p. 30). Images of this ideal have become increasingly common in the media (Pope et al., 2000). For example, compared to 25 years ago, men are now more often bare chested in magazines (Pope, Olivardia, Borowiecki, & Cohane, 2001), in accord with increased sexual objectification of male bodies in mainstream advertising (Rohlinger, 2002). Repeated exposure to images of unrealistically muscular male ideals may cause men to feel insecure about their own bodies, parallel to the way in which exposure to images of unrealistically thin models promotes body dissatisfaction among girls.

The purpose of the present experiment was to examine the impact of televised images of idealised male attractiveness, in addition to female attractiveness, on adolescent body image. Effects on the underlying process, and individual differences in reaction, were also examined. Social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954; Suls & Wheeler, 2002; Wood, 1989) would suggest that the mechanism by which media exposure influences body image is appearance-related social comparison. Specifically, a number of authors (Cattarin et al., 2000; Durkin & Paxton, 2002; Martin & Kennedy, 1993; Richins, 1991; Tiggemann & McGill, 2004) reason that viewing television, or reading magazines, prompts individuals to evaluate their own appearance by comparison to the salient and highly attractive models who pervade such media. Because this process leads most individuals to find themselves wanting, such upward social comparison produces a negative evaluation of one's own physical appearance, resulting in a state-like increase in body dissatisfaction.

In addition there are likely to be stable individual differences in comparison tendency relating to appearance (Wood, 1989). Such differences might predict who engages in “state” appearance-related social comparison to media images, and is therefore most vulnerable to the media's effect on body image. Recent evidence suggests girls are more likely to engage in appearance-related social comparison than boys (Jones, 2001). Moreover, individuals who have a trait-like tendency to engage in appearance-related social comparison (Thompson, Heinberg, & Tantleff, 1991), or who are more strongly invested in their appearance, sometimes referred to as appearance schematics (Cash & Labarge, 1996), may be particularly likely to engage in appearance comparison to media images. We propose that these stable individual difference variables (e.g., trait social comparison, appearance schematicity, and gender) interact with characteristics of the media image (e.g., salience of the model's attractiveness) to predict when media exposure will prompt appearance-related comparison and increased body dissatisfaction.

To date this perspective has been investigated only for women and girls. In a recent study, Tiggemann and McGill (2004) showed that both the experimental variable of media type (thin-ideal or control) and the stable individual difference variable of trait social comparison predicted actual comparison to media images and increased body dissatisfaction. We believe this perspective is equally applicable to an understanding of men's and boys’ body image. The present study used a 2 × 2 between subjects experimental design to investigate the effects of commercial condition (thin ideal, muscular ideal, non-appearance control) and instructional set (appearance-focus, distracter) on boys’ and girls’ appearance-related social comparison and state body dissatisfaction. Trait social comparison and appearance schematicity were assessed as possible moderating variables. It was predicted that boys (girls) would report greater body dissatisfaction and appearance comparison after viewing muscular-ideal (thin-ideal) commercials than non-appearance commercials, and that adolescents high on trait social comparison and appearance schematicity would be most strongly affected.

Section snippets

Participants

The participants were 595 adolescent students (310 girls, 285 boys) from two South Australian metropolitan coeducation public high schools of medium socio-economic status. Students were in years 8–12 and with a mean age of 14.3 years (SD = 1.4). Participants were allocated to the thin-ideal, muscular-ideal, or non-appearance commercial condition by random allocation of class group (n = 42), and were randomly allocated to the instructional set conditions on an individual basis. This procedure

The effect of television commercials on girls’ and boys’ body dissatisfaction

The adjusted means (controlling for pre-commercial state) for girls and boys after commercial viewing on the body dissatisfaction outcome variable (average of fat, weight dissatisfaction, appearance dissatisfaction) are presented in Table 1. A 2 (Gender) × 2 (commercial condition) × 2 (Instructional set) ANCOVA (controlling for the pre-commercial variable) was conducted to test the prediction that viewing thin/muscular-ideal commercials would lead to greater body dissatisfaction than viewing

Discussion

The present study has replicated the results of previous research for adolescent girls (Durkin & Paxton, 2002; Groesz et al., 2002; Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2002, Hargreaves and Tiggemann, 2003; Stice et al., 2001). As predicted, exposure to thin-ideal commercials led to significantly greater body dissatisfaction and negative affect among girls than non-appearance commercials. Although the effect sizes were only small, the results are consistent with the conclusion that exposure to thin-ideal

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