Exposure to the mass media and weight concerns among girls

Objective. To assess the influence of the media on girls' weight concerns, weight control/loss behaviors, and perceptions of body weight and shape. Design. Cross-sectional survey completed in school. The questionnaire asses sed body weight, dissatisfaction with body weight and shape, exposure to fa shion magazines, the impact of media on feelings about weight and shape, at tributes of and preferences for body types, and whether subjects had gone o n a diet to lose weight or initiated exercise because of an article in a ma gazine. Setting. Mandatory physical education class in public elementary, junior hi gh, and high schools. Participants. Subjects included 548 5th- through 12th-grade girls in a work ing-class suburb in the northeastern United States. Outcome Measures. Perceived influence of fashion magazines on body dissatis faction, idea of the perfect body shape, dieting to lose weight, and initia ting an exercise program. Results. Pictures in magazines had a strong impact on girls' perceptions of their weight and shape. Of the girls, 69% reported that magazine pictures influence their idea of the perfect body shape, and 47% reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures. There was a positive linear asso ciation between the frequency of reading women's magazines and the prevalen ce of having dieted to lose weight because of a magazine article, initiatin g an exercise program because of a magazine article, wanting to lose weight because of pictures in magazines, and feeling that pictures in magazines i nfluence their idea of the perfect body shape. In multivariate logistic regression models controlling for weight status (o verweight vs not overweight), school level (elementary vs junior high schoo l, elementary vs high school), and race/ethnic group, girls who were freque nt readers of fashion magazines were two to three times more likely than in frequent readers to diet to lose weight because of a magazine article (odds ratio [OR] = 2.11, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.19-3.75); to exercise t o lose weight because of a magazine article (OR = 3.02, 45% CI: 1.77-5.17); and to feel that magazines influence what they believe is the ideal body s hape (OR = 2.81; 95% CI: 1.72-4.58), In addition, moderate-frequency reader s were more likely than infrequent readers of fashion magazines to report e xercising because of a magazine article (OR = 1.94; 95% CI: 1.14-3.30) and feeling that magazines influence what they believe is the ideal body shape (OR = 2.03; 95% CI: 1.30-3.15). Discussion. The majority of the preadolescent and adolescent girls in this school-based study were unhappy with their body weight and shape. This disc ontentment was strongly related to the frequency of reading fashion magazin es. Although previous studies have concluded that the print media promotes an unrealistically thin body ideal, which in turn is at least partially res ponsible for promoting eating disorders, the present study is the first tha t we are aware of to assess directly the impact of the print media on the w eight and body shape beliefs of young girls. We observed that the frequency of reading fashion magazines was positively associated with the prevalence of having dieted to lose weight, having gone on a diet because of a magazi ne article, exercising to lose weight or improve body shape, and deciding t o exercise because of a magazine article. Given the substantial health risk associated with overweight and the fact t hat during the past 2 decades the prevalence of overweight has increased sh arply among children and adolescents, it is not prudent to suggest that ove rweight girls should accept their body shape and not be encouraged to lose weight. However, aspiring to look like underweight models may have deleteri ous psychological consequences. The results suggest that the print media ai med at young girls could serve a public health role by refraining from rely ing on models who are severely underweight and printing more articles on th e benefits of physical activity. Additional research is needed to assess wh ether articles on the health hazards of severe dieting, bulimic behaviors, and maintaining a very low body weight would be beneficial.