Longer-term implications of responsiveness to 'thin-ideal' television: support for a cumulative hypothesis of body image disturbance?

• Published in: European eating disorders review 2003-11, Vol.11 (6), p.465-477
• Main Authors: Hargreaves, Duane, Tiggemann, Marika
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1072-4133; 1099-0968
• DOI: 10.1002/erv.509

Brief exposure to thin‐ideal media images has been shown to have a small but consistent negative impact on women and girls' body dissatisfaction. The present study aimed to examine the consequence of these small changes in body dissatisfaction for the development of body image over time. A sample of 80 adolescents (mean age = 17.2 years) completed measures of body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and drive for muscularity. Two years earlier they had viewed either 20 appearance‐related television commercials (containing female thin ideals) or 20 non‐appearance commercials as part of an experimental study. For girls, initial body dissatisfaction change in response to viewing appearance commercials at time 1 predicted subsequent body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness 2 years later, above and beyond the variance predicted by initial body dissatisfaction. Similar results were observed for boys' drive for thinness but not for body dissatisfaction. Overall, these results are consistent with a cumulative hypothesis of media exposure and body image development. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association.