The media's influence on body image, self-esteem and eating attitudes in young adults.
Authors
Piggot, Jodie
Issue Date
2009
Degree
BA in Psychology
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
This study looked at the Medias influences on body image, self-esteem and eating attitudes in young adults, 48 females and 39 males. Most theories of dieting, body image, and eating disorders assign a major role to sociocultural factors, such as the media (Dunkley, Paxton, Wertheim, 2001) .All participants completed a questionnaire which comprised of the Body Shape Questionnaire, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Socio-cultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Scale and demographic questions in relation to the media such as magazine and television consumption. The predictor variables were nationality, gender, body image, self-esteem and eating Attitudes. The criterion variable in this study was media exposure (social comparisons, influence of outside sources). The demographic variable is age. The results showed a significant difference between pressures from the media and genders. The level of significance in this study is 0.05. An independent sample t-test showed a significant difference between genders on body image. Future researchers may look at a larger sample as results may show to be more representative of the general population.