Media Exposure of the Ideal Physique on Women’s Body Dissatisfaction and Mood

Abstract

Although body image concerns are influenced by cultural and ethnic factors, most research on the media and body image has focused exclusively on Caucasians. The goal of this study was to examine whether ethnicity moderates the body dissatisfaction and mood of women exposed to media images portraying the ideal physique. Two ethnic groups of women (Caucasians and African Americans) viewed two sets of slides (mass media ideals and controls) and completed pre- and posttest mood state measures of anxiety, depression, anger, and body dissatisfaction. Findings reveal that although the African American women reported no changes from pre- to posttest body dissatisfaction after viewing either slide condition, the Caucasian women reported higher body dissatisfaction after viewing the model slides and lower body dissatisfaction scores after viewing the control slides. No other results were significant. Study results and future research directions are discussed.

Stories can influence the self-concept

“…Such effects were often smaller or even absent for black female recipients (Greenwood & Dal Cin, 2012;López-Guimerà, Levine, Sànchez-Carracedo, & Fauquet, 2010). The predominantly white females depicted in the media serve as a standard of comparison for recipients who are white and female themselves but not for those recipients who lack the sociodemographic similarity (e.g., DeBraganza & Hausenblas, 2010;Frisby, 2004).…”

Professors’ Research Expectations for Admission to Psychology Graduate Programs

“…Despite the severity of disordered eating symptoms and risk factors, studies exploring differences in eating disorder symptomatology between races have been limited. The research that does exist suggests that, although rates of eating disorders are increasing broadly, differences continue to emerge between African American and European American women on levels of disordered eating and body dissatisfaction, with African American women reporting less disordered eating (p = .07) and body dissatisfaction (p < .05) than European American women (DeBraganza & Hausenblas, 2010;Frisby, 2004;Howard, Heron, McIntyre, Myers, & Everhart, 2017). Investigations into these differences have largely focused on ethnic identity, cultural defini tions of beauty, divergent body ideals, and mass media influences as potential explanations for this discrepancy (Akan & Grilo, 1995;LópezGuimerà, Levine, SánchezCarracedo, & Fauquet, 2010).…”

The impact of value orientations on body image and the use of physical beauty practices by young women in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia

“…Despite globalization and the "exporting" of the Western physical beauty "ideals", aggressively promoted and directly or indirectly disseminated by contemporary technologies and the media, there are certain cultural differences (Miller et al, 2000;Rosen, Anthony, Booker and Brown 1991;Swami et al, 2010;DeBraganza and Hausenblas, 2010), when talking about the phenomenon of a negative body image, media impact on the perception of our own physique and the cultural inequalities in the use of physical beauty practices. One of the main factors that affect the body image, is undoubtedly the environment with its system of prevailing value orientations 6 , from which an individual is originating.…”