The role of media exposure in adolescent girls' body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness: Prospective results

The aim of the study was to investigate prospectively the direction of the relationship between media exposure and body image disturbance. Participants were 214 female high school students (mean age = 14 years) who completed questionnaire measures of media exposure (magazines and television), internalization of appearance ideals, appearance schemas, body dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness at Time 1, and then again one year later at Time 2. It was found that Time 1 reading of appearance magazines and watching of soap operas predicted Time 2 internalization, appearance schemas, and drive for thinness. However, regression analyses controlling for Time 1 body image variables showed that no media exposure variable predicted change in any body image measure. Neither did body image predict change in media exposure. Appearance schemas, however, did predict change in body dissatisfaction. It was concluded that, for this age group, media exposure and body image co-occur, but that neither one is temporally antecedent to the other. Thus the study demonstrated no causal role for media exposure in the body image of adolescent girls.