Magazine reading and eating disorders
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Transcript of Magazine reading and eating disorders
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Written and pictorial content in magazines
and their potential relationship to eating
disorders
Kornlia Szab & Ferenc Try
Semmelweis University Institute of Behavioural Sciences
Budapest, Hungary
Alpbach, 2011
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Table of contents
Magazines and eating pathology
Magazine contents
Magazine covers and headlines
Summary
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Magazines
Time spent reading magazines: 83% of adolescent girls read fashion magazines for an average of 4.3 hours per week1
More than 98% of females read womens beauty and fashion magazines at least once a year2
60%: once a month, 38% twice a month or more3
Magazines influence or shape:
personal values about thinness
gender socialization, gender role endorsement
identity development, personality
concerns with physical appearance and eating behaviours
1Levine & Smolak, 1996; 2Thomsen, Weber & Brown, 2002 (n=502, highschool females); 3Thomsen, Mccoy, Gustafson, & Williams, 2002 (n=536, college-age women)
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Magazine reading and eating pathology
Body (dis)satisfaction1,2,3,4
Internalization1
Drive for thinnes2
Social comparison5,6
Eating disorder symptomatology2,4
Higher among those at risk for ED (vulnerability)7
1Morry & Staska, 2001; 2Harrison & Cantor, 1997; 3Bissell & Zhou (2004); 4Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, and Stein (1994); 5Durkin & Paxton, 2002; 6 van den Berg, Thompson, Obremski-Brandon, & Coovert, 2002; 7Stice 2002.
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Magazine reading and weight control methods/techniques
Frequency of healthy, unhealthy, and extreme weight-control behaviours1,2
Importance of muscularity/thinness
Methods to obtain these perfect bodies
Dietary restraint behaviour1,diets3,diet pills2
Supplements4: 4,7% boys/ 1,6% girls used for improving weight and shape
Exercise
Both males and females
1van den Berg, Neumark-Sztainer, Hannan and Haines, 2007; 2Thomsen, Weber & Brown, 2002; 3Utter et al., 2003; 4Field et al., 2005.
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Magazine contents
1. Pictorial (slim/muscular models)
2. Written (ED-stories)
3. Advertisements
4. Nutrition/Fitness/ Diet content
5. Covers and headlines
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Pictorial magazine content
Cultural representation of thinness
Slim women/Muscular men
Change over time (1960-2011)
Body image is significantly more negative after viewing thin media images1
1Groesz et al.,2002: Meta analytic review
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Written magazine content
Media mostly sensationalizes, simplifies ED- stories1,2,3
ED stories are most often told about celebrities1
Clinical complications and medical treatments are rarely mentioned1,3
Medical views about causation and treatment are more salient in later years2
1OHara and Clegg-Smith, 2007; 2Shepherd & Seale, 2010; 3Bishop, 2001
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Written magazine content
Inch & Merali, 2006: A 5 year long study, 42 popular magazine articles were coded:
-illness type -mention of weight loss -disordered behaviours -health impacts Anorexics are more often profiled Disordered behaviours as achieving
weight loss is more often mentioned than their physical consequences
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Advertisements in magazines
Weight loss advertisements:
Nearly 40% of weight loss ads make a representation that is almost certainly false1
10 times more diet ads or articles in women magazines2
Food advertising increasingly portrays food as a type of medicine3
1Federal Trade Comission report, 2002; 2Silverstein & DiDomenico, 1992; 3Zwier, 2009; 4Evans et al., 1991
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Nutrition/Fitness/Diet related magazine content
Increase in content1
Dieting
Exercise
Combined plans
Focus on body shape, appearance and weight loss
Statements that the product or service would promote weight loss were found in 47% of nutrition-related advertisements1
1Guillen & Barr, 1994
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Magazine covers and headlines
Diet and body image related headlines1
Women should be thin, beautiful and attractive to men1
Malkin et al., 1999:
78% of female magazine covers contained messages regarding bodily appearance
25% of covers contained conflicting messages regarding weight loss and dietary habits
Positioning: losing weight may lead to a better life
1Davalos et al, 2007
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Summary
Media is not necessarily a causal risk factor
Media is interacting with other variables
Media literacy prevention programs are important
More research is needed (longitudinal studies, motivational factors)
Direct media effects may be small to modest1, but the combination of direct and indirect effects may be considerable2
1Groesz et al., 2002; 2Harrison & Hefner, 2006; Levine et al., 1994;
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