Title

Body Image And The Role Of Television: Clarifying And Modelling The Effect Of Television On Body Dissatisfaction

Keywords

Body image; cultivation; resonance; social cognitive theory

Abstract

This study attempts to bring some clarity to the relationships among genre-related television (TV) exposure, body image perceptions and body dissatisfaction. Female undergraduates (n = 417) completed measures of thin-ideal reality TV viewing, perceptions of social value of thinness, peer and parental attitudes towards thinness, as well as the internalization of the thin ideal and body dissatisfaction measures. First-order effects (perceptions of social reality) and second-order effects (personal attitudes) were examined. Additionally, media exposure was juxtaposed with social influences such as perceptions of peer and parent attitudes to form a model of TV use, body image attitudes and body dissatisfaction. Results suggest thin-ideal reality TV viewing and other social sources such as peer and parent attitudes are linked directly to perceptions of the social value of thinness (first-order effect). However, thin-ideal reality TV exposure was indirectly related to the internalization of the thin ideal (second-order effect) and body dissatisfaction. A model of body dissatisfaction including thin-ideal reality TV viewing as well as perceptions of peer and parent attitudes was supported.

Publication Date

11-3-2014

Publication Title

Journal of Creative Communications

Volume

9

Issue

3

Number of Pages

215-233

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258614545016

Socpus ID

84912114297 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84912114297

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