The Scope of Body Image Disturbance - the Big Picture An Overview of Assessment and Treatment Strategies Sociocultural Theory - the Media and Society Social Comparison Processes Appearance-Related Feedback Interpersonal Factors Peers, Parents and Perfect Strangers Feminist Perspectives Sexual Abuse and Sexual Harassment Behavioural Aspects of Disturbance - Conditioning, Context and Avoidance Cognitive Processing Models Future Directions - Integrative Theories, Multidimensional Assessment and Multicomponent Interventions

Exacting Beauty: Theory, Assessment, and Treatment of Body Image Disturbance

The authors examine the implications of electronic shopping for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers. They assume that near-term technological developments will offer consumers unparalleled opportunities to locate and compare product offerings. They examine these advantages as a function of typical consumer goals and the types of products and services being sought and offer conclusions regarding consumer incentives and disincentives to purchase through interactive home shopping vis-à-vis traditional retail formats. The authors discuss implications for industry structure as they pertain to competition among retailers, competition among manufacturers, and retailer-manufacturer relationships.

Interactive home shopping: Consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in

Twenty-five years of consumer socialization research have yielded an impressive set of findings. The purpose of our article is to review these findings and assess what we know about children's development as consumers. Our focus is on the developmental sequence characterizing the growth of consumer knowledge, skills, and values as children mature throughout childhood and adolescence. In doing so, we present a conceptual framework for understanding consumer socialization as a series of stages, with transitions between stages occurring as children grow older and mature in cognitive and social terms. We then review empirical findings illustrating these stages, including children's knowledge of products, brands, advertising, shopping, pricing, decision-making strategies, parental influence strategies, and consumption motives and values. Based on the evidence reviewed, implications are drawn for future theoretical and empirical development in the field of consumer socialization.

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Consumer Socialization of Children: A Retrospective Look at Twenty-Five Years of Research

Objective
The effect of experimental manipulations of the thin beauty ideal, as portrayed in the mass media, on female body image was evaluated using meta-analysis.

Method
Data from 25 studies (43 effect sizes) were used to examine the main effect of mass media images of the slender ideal, as well as the moderating effects of pre-existing body image problems, the age of the participants, the number of stimulus presentations, and the type of research design.

Results
Body image was significantly more negative after viewing thin media images than after viewing images of either average size models, plus size models, or inanimate objects. This effect was stronger for between-subjects designs, participants less than 19 years of age, and for participants who are vulnerable to activation of a thinness schema.

Conclusion
Results support the sociocultural perspective that mass media promulgate a slender ideal that elicits body dissatisfaction. Implications for prevention and research on social comparison processes are considered. © 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 31: 1–16, 2002.

The effect of experimental presentation of thin media images on body satisfaction: a meta-analytic review.

Research suggests that exposure to mass media depicting the thin-ideal body may be linked to body image disturbance in women. This meta-analysis examined experimental and correlational studies testing the links between media exposure to women's body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and eating behaviors and beliefs with a sample of 77 studies that yielded 141 effect sizes. The mean effect sizes were small to moderate (ds = -.28, -.39, and -.30, respectively). Effects for some outcome variables were moderated by publication year and study design. The findings support the notion that exposure to media images depicting the thin-ideal body is related to body image concerns for women.

The role of the media in body image concerns among women: A meta-analysis of experimental and correlational studies.

One of advertising's “unintended effects” is the impact highly attractive models may have on female pre-adolescents and adolescents. Using social comparison theory as a framework, the authors propose that young girls compare their physical attractiveness with that of advertising models and, subsequently, their self-perceptions and self-esteem may be affected, depending on the motive for social comparison. They report a study with a mixed-model design in which motive was manipulated. Girls in grades four, six, and eight participated. The results suggest that motive is important, as support was found for all hypotheses. However, the support was not consistent across all grades or for all dependent variables. The authors consider possible reasons for the inconsistency and discuss the implications of the findings for advertisers and educators.

Stuck in the Model Trap: The Effects of Beautiful Models in Ads on Female Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents

The authors investigate the impact of advertising beauty images on female preadolescents and adolescents An experiment using 4th, 8th, and 12th graders demonstrated that exposure to advertising with highly attractive models raises comparison standards for physical attractiveness, but does not affect self-perceptions of physical attractiveness The findings also suggest that the tendency of female pre-adolescents and adolescents to compare themselves to models in ads increases with age, and this tendency is greater for those with lower self-perceptions of physical attractiveness and/or self-esteem © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Advertising and social comparison: Consequences for female preadolescents and adolescents

The author conducts a meta-analysis investigating the extent to which children understand the intent of advertising. The results show several study characteristics that have contributed to variance...

Children's Understanding of the Intent of Advertising: A Meta-Analysis:

Social Comparison and the Beauty of Advertising Models: the Role of Motives For Comparison

Purpose – The objective of this study is to explore adolescent girls' knowledge about the types of beauty valued in contemporary American popular and commercial culture.Design/methodology/approach – Eighty girls ranging from seven to thirteen years old participated in a card sorting and collage construction exercise using 47 advertisements that featured models.Findings – Differences were found among girls according to age. Preferred beauty types were more complex with age. Furthermore, older girls made more product and brand associations.Research limitations/implications – The findings indicate that the beauty match‐up hypothesis holds among young girls.Practical implications – Advertisers may be overlooking the audience of young women by neglecting to use models who represent their desired type(s) of beauty. They may even be alienating young girls by using anti‐ideals such as nudity and sexiness. Furthermore, advertisers must use models who convey the appropriate personality traits to create persuasive a...

Mary C. Martin

Papers

Stuck in the Model Trap: The Effects of Beautiful Models in Ads on Female Pre-Adolescents and Adolescents

Advertising and social comparison: Consequences for female preadolescents and adolescents

Children's Understanding of the Intent of Advertising: A Meta-Analysis:

Social Comparison and the Beauty of Advertising Models: the Role of Motives For Comparison

Exploring adolescent girls' identification of beauty types through consumer collages