Body Image Dissatisfaction Caused By Media Pressure

The purpose of this study was to assess the mediating effects of perceived media pressure (PMP) on upward physical appearance comparison tendency (UPACT) and body image dissatisfaction (BID). We used cross-sectional study design to collect data, later this format of data collection changed to online Qualtrics data collection method due to COVID-19 pandemic. A mediation model was applied to explore the pathway from UPACT to PMP to BID. Then a step by step logistic regression analysis was performed to examine each path in the mediation model. The results revealed that the complete pathway from UPACT to PMP to BID was significant (z = 3.76, p < .001). This indicated that women engaging in upward physical appearance comparison tend to perceive thin-ideal media content and media mediates this relationship leading to body image dissatisfaction among women. Research also highlights various implications and future research directions that can be investigated.

Keywords: body image, mediation analysis, perceived media pressure, upward physical appearance comparison tendency

Discussion

The primary aim of the study to test media pressure as the mediating factor that facilitates the relationship between upward physical appearance comparison tendency (UPACT) and body image dissatisfaction was methodically unravelled using mediation analysis. We hypothesized that with increasing upward physical appearance comparison tendency (UPACT) in our population of study, college women, will expose themselves to media content that showed thinness as ideal body image. This would lead to women higher in UPACT to experience more pressure to be thin from the media. As a result, these women would experience greater body image dissatisfaction (BID). Our two main findings from the study revealed: 1) media pressure acts as mediator in the pathway from UPACT and BID, and 2) there was a reduction in the magnitude of the mediation effect of our model.

To our knowledge, our study is unique in the way that it looks at media pressure as a mediator between UPACT and BID and not as being the sole cause for BID. We began by exploring each pathway in the mediation model. The basic relationship between UPACT and BID (path c) showed evidence of significant relation. Its proven in earlier research which shows that people with a strong tendency to make upward physical appearance comparisons experience greater body dissatisfaction and disordered eating behaviours (Cattarin, Thompson, Thomas, & Williams 2000). In context of sociocultural theory, previous studies have suggested that pressure to be thin from one’s social environment fosters body dissatisfaction because repeated messages that one is not thin enough would be expected to produce discontent with physical appearance (Striegel-Moore, et al.,1986;Thompson et al., 1999). Further we investigated path a, the regression analysis reported significant relationship between UPACT and media pressure i.e. women with tendency to engage in upward physical appearance comparison would perceive greater media pressure, lastly pathway b studies the relation between media pressure and BID, revealing that perceived media pressure results in greater body image dissatisfaction. Wide-extending research of media influence and pressure on body image show that As (Harrison, 2004) said in t because media presentations of women’s bodies are so skewed, showcasing an ideal that is out of reach to most, adopting this reality may lead to decreased satisfaction with one’s own body (e.g., Levine & Harrison, 2004) and to behaviours aimed at meeting this ideal. Another correlational research demonstrated a positive relation between media consumption and body dissatisfaction among women (Cusumano & Thompson, 1997). The complete mediation model pathway from UPACT to perceived media pressure to BID (outcome variable) was significant (z = 3.76, p < .001). The findings thus support that our results are consistent with the hypothesis.

The findings from this study can inform prevention and intervention efforts particularly in the areas of education and advertising. With respect to education, media literacy can be used to teach girls and women to become more active, critical consumers of appearance-related media to prevent the development of body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating behaviors. For example, Posavac et al. (1998) found that female college students with negative body image who were given a 7-min psychoeducational presentation involving media analysis were less likely to engage in social comparison and less likely to be negatively affected by images of slender beauty than were students who had seen the same images without prior education. In another study, Irving, Dupen, and Berel (1998) found that female high school students who participated in a media literacy discussion reported lower perceived realism of media images and less internalization of the popular standard of beauty. However, Irving et al. also reported that the groups did not differ on levels of body dissatisfaction. In fact, despite the critical awareness that media literacy training stands to offer, several studies have found limited evidence of the effectiveness of media literacy, suggesting that the pervasiveness of the media’s promotion of the thin ideal is far greater than the proactive messages offered in one-time interventions (e.g., Irving & Berel, 2001; McVey & Davis, 2002). Thus, short-term media literacy interventions alone may not suffice to counteract massive media exposure to the thin ideal.

The findings from this study can inform prevention and intervention efforts particularly in the areas of education and advertising. With respect to education, media literacy can be used to teach girls and women to become more active, critical consumers of appearance-related media to prevent the development of body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating behaviors. For example, Posavac et al. (1998) found that female college students with negative body image who were given a 7-min psychoeducational presentation involving media analysis were less likely to engage in social comparison and less likely to be negatively affected by images of slender beauty than were students who had seen the same images without prior education. In another study, Irving, Dupen, and Berel (1998) found that female high school students who participated in a media literacy discussion reported lower perceived realism of media images and less internalization of the popular standard of beauty. However, Irving et al. also reported that the groups did not differ on levels of body dissatisfaction. In fact, despite the critical awareness that media literacy training stands to offer, several studies have found limited evidence of the effectiveness of media literacy, suggesting that the pervasiveness of the media’s promo tion of the thin ideal is far greater than the proactive messages offered in one-time interventions (e.g., Irving & Berel, 2001; McVey & Davis, 2002). Thus, short-term media literacy interventions alone may not suffice to counteract massive media exposure to the thin ideal.

The findings from this study can inform prevention and intervention efforts particularly in the areas of education and advertising. With respect to education, media literacy can be used to teach girls and women to become more active, critical consumers of appearance-related media to prevent the development of body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating behaviors. For example, Posavac et al. (1998) found that female college students with negative body image who were given a 7-min psychoeducational presentation involving media analysis were less likely to engage in social comparison and less likely to be negatively affected by images of slender beauty than were students who had seen the same images without prior education. In another study, Irving, Dupen, and Berel (1998) found that female high school students who participated in a media literacy discussion reported lower perceived realism of media images and less internalization of the popular standard of beauty. However, Irving et al. also reported that the groups did not differ on levels of body dissatisfaction. In fact, despite the critical awareness that media literacy training stands to offer, several studies have found limited evidence of the effectiveness of media literacy, suggesting that the pervasiveness of the media’s promotion of the thin ideal is far greater than the proactive messages offered in one-time interventions (e.g., Irving & Berel, 2001;McVey & Davis, 2002). Thus, short-term media literacy interventions alone may not suffice to counteract massive media exposure to the thin ideal.

The findings from this study can inform prevention and intervention efforts particularly in the areas of education and advertising. With respect to education, media literacy can be used to teach girls and women to become more active, critical consumers of  appearance-related media to prevent the development of body dissatisfaction and disturbed eating behaviors. For example, Posavac et al. (1998) found that female college students with negative body image who were given a 7-min psychoeducational presentation involving media analysis were less likely to engage in social comparison and less likely to be negatively affected by images of slender beauty than were students who had seen the same images without prior education. In another study, Irving, Dupen, and Berel (1998) found that female high school students who participated in a media literacy discussion reported lower perceived realism of media images and less internalization of the popular standard of beauty. However, Irving et al. also reported that the groups did not differ on levels of body dissatisfaction. In fact, despite the critical awareness that media literacy training stands to offer, several studies have found limited evidence of the effectiveness of media literacy, suggesting that the pervasiveness of the media’s promotion of the thin ideal is far greater than the proactive messages offered in one-time interventions (e.g., Irving & Berel, 2001; McVey & Davis, 2002). Thus, short-term media literacy interventions alone may not suffice to counteract massive media exposure to the thin idea.

Limitations and Strengths

What strengthens our study is that we targeted the population at risk, women are more susceptible to body image issues. Secondly, validated measures were administered, i.e. systematic scales and survey to gather the appropriate data to study our hypothesis. Like every study there are limitations that can be addressed for improving research in the future and to inform the caveats of our study.

Firstly, the most notable issue concerns the operationalization of perceived media pressure scale. When women respond that they have felt a lot of pressure from the media (e.g. TV, magazines, internet) to lose weight, we cannot be entirely sure if it is true because people mistakenly conclude that media is affecting them (Ferguson et al. (2011). Addition of a greater number of constructive items in the scale would increase the reliability. Secondly, according to the mediation analysis (Baron & Kenny,1896), perfect mediation occurs when the basic relationship (path c) disappears. In our study we did not achieve perfect mediation, rather a significant reduction. The effect size of our mediation pathway was rather small implying that media pressure was only able to explain a small percentage of the basic relationship (path c). Inclusion of a moderator in the mediation model such as self-esteem can be used to achieve higher or no effect. Thirdly, we adopted a cross-sectional design of study, these studies are correlational and not causal, hence we could not establish temporal precedence. For future research, a longitudinal study design would suffice for improved understanding of the cause-effect relationship between the variables. Lastly, we conducted a Sobel test is sensitive to means and standard deviations if the sample is not large enough, determining the sample size is subjective hence future research should take into account the alternative method of bootstrapping which does not rely on assumption of normality, this would resolve our issue.

Implications and Future directions

The fact that large number of women experience body image dissatisfaction, inclusion of a greater number of participants in future research would increase the statistical power to further inspect the extent to which media affects women. Including women of different ethnicity would also foster better understanding of how media affects women from different sociocultural backgrounds. Further future research, in a longitudinal study design is needed to identify the individual differences and fundamental psychosocial mechanisms that contribute to this distress is required to isolate the risk factors at an earlier age. To gain a more systematic evidence of women’s perception, adding open-ended questions would deem appropriate in future studies. It would also be prudent to examine the risk factors for body dissatisfaction among males, given the evidence that it is on the rise (Thompson et al., 1999). In addition, future research in this area should also begin to include factors such as body-mass index(BMI), self-consciousness and self-esteem, women who have higher BMI may be prone to self-esteem issues which could cause weight related issues and cause BID. Further studying how media influences behaviours such as dieting, excessive fasting, excessive exercise and other such behaviours should be reflected upon to study body image issues.

Regarding implications, given the results of the study one suggestion would be to implement better media literacy in school among girls to be critical viewers of what they see on media and how they perceive it. Creating more media awareness and informing that the thin ideal is practically unattainable and help women apprehend that the models are not real; they are airbrushed, photoshopped to look slimmer, and posed to look that certain way. Another suggestion would be to introduce self-esteem development tin girls from a younger age and such information be discussed or taught in schools and institutions. Finally, parental and peer support for self-acceptance and helping them realize that everyone is unique in their own way.

In conclusion, the findings provide sufficient evidence demonstrating that perceived media pressure mediates the relation between upward physical appearance comparison tendency and body image dissatisfaction. Hence it is important to identify, educate better media literacy and minimize the unrealistic body ideal advertised and accepted in society.