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This article reviews research pertaining to mass media as a causal risk factor for negative body image and disordered eating in females. The specific purpose is to clarify the impact of mass media by applying seven criteria that extend those of Kraemer et al. (1997) and Stice (2002). Although media effects clearly meet a majority of the criteria, this analysis indicates that, currently, engagement with mass media is probably best considered a variable risk factor that might well be later shown to be a causal risk factor. Recommendations are made for further research, with an emphasis on longitudinal investigations, studies of media literacy as a form of prevention, and clarification of psychosocial processes that moderate and mediate media effects.
Numerous professionals, parents, and adolescents find the media's status as a cause of body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, and eat- ing disorders to be self-evident: "Of course, mass media contribute to unhealthy beauty ideals, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating - haven't you seen the magazine covers in the supermarket newsstands lately? No wonder so many girls have body image is- sues and eating disorders." On the contrary, a growing number of parents, biopsychiatric researchers, clinicians (e.g., Bulik, 2004), and cynical adolescents find proclamations about media as a cause of any disorder to be an irritating distraction. Their contention is, in effect: "Of course, we know now that eating disorders, like mood disorders and schizophrenia, are severe, self-sustaining psychiatric illnesses with a genetic and biochemical basis. So, of course, no scientist seriously thinks that mass media and the escapades of actors, models, and celebrities have anything to do with causing them."
This article reviews the current status of research pertaining to mass media as a causal risk factor for clinically significant levels of negative body image and disordered eating in females. After considering the criteria for establishing a causal risk factor, we analyze the evidence for the impact of mass media (e.g., fashion magazines, television). The principal goals are to clarify (1) what is known with relative certainty about media's effects on females (2) what isn't known yet, or remains ambiguous; and (3) what methodologies and studies are needed to advance the types of risk-factor knowledge that should facilitate prevention, treatment, and support during recovery.
The...