Impacts of exposure to images of ideal bodies on male body dissatisfaction: a review

Research suggests that young men's body dissatisfaction increases when they see images of attractive muscular men. This article provides the first extensive review of experimental studies exposing men to advertisements or commercials featuring idealized male bodies. Impacts on body dissatisfaction were evaluated by calculating and analyzing effect sizes from 15 studies. The effect sizes indicate that exposure to images of idealized male bodies has a small but statistically significant negative impact on men's body dissatisfaction. Three studies suggest that young men who are dissatisfied with their bodies are at increased risk for negative self-evaluations when exposed to idealized images. Two studies suggest that men who are satisfied with their bodies may be protected against negative impacts from seeing such images.     

Defining body deception and its role in peer based social comparison theories of body dissatisfaction

The purpose of the current study was to operationalize the phenomenon of body deception, describe its theoretical importance, and validate its existence in an experimental paradigm. The definition of body deception includes the intentional misrepresentation of information about appearance to others. The present study examined body deception in a controlled experimental study of male and female same-sex peer groups using a series of hierarchical linear models. Ninety male and 90 female undergraduates were randomized to an experimental same-sex peer group or individual control condition. The results suggested that both men and women used body deception among peers, but men's body deception was muscularity driven whereas women's was thinness driven. Body dissatisfaction was significantly predictive of the degree of body deception used by both genders and it was significantly related to peer group membership. An integrated model for the role of body deception in body image disturbance is proposed.     

Examining body dissatisfaction in young men within a biopsychosocial framework

This study examined biopsychosocial factors related to body dissatisfaction in young men within multivariate and moderator contexts. A female sample was included as a gender comparison. Male (n = 111) and female (n = 236) undergraduates filled out self-report questionnaires assessing body mass index (BMI), media influence, a history of weight-related teasing, and socially prescribed perfectionism, along with various indices of body dissatisfaction. Perceived pressure from the media was consistently related to body dissatisfaction in men whereas multiple biopsychosocial variables accounted for body dissatisfaction in women. Socially prescribed perfectionism and a history of weight teasing each moderated the relationship between BMI and male body dissatisfaction, identifying men low in body dissatisfaction. Findings indicate that applying a biopsychosocial framework to the study of body dissatisfaction in men is useful and suggest the need for including other factors, such as male peers and sports involvement, in understanding contributors to male body image.     

Individual differences in the anti-fat attitudes of preschool-children: the importance of perceived body size

Preschool-age children hold negative attitudes toward overweight peers (i.e., anti-fat attitudes), but little is known about individual differences in these attitudes. The current study investigated actual weight status and perceived body size in relation to preschool-age children's anti-fat attitudes. Sixty-nine 4–6 year-olds (61% girls) were individually interviewed about their body size perceptions using a figure rating scale and anti-fat attitudes using multiple methods (including an adjective rating scale and ratings of acceptability for different body shapes). Results suggested that children's perceived body size, not actual body size, was related to their attitudes about an overweight figure and the number of figures rated as acceptable. Children who perceived themselves as heavier held fewer anti-fat attitudes. Perceived and actual body size ratings were not related to ratings of a thin figure. This study suggests the importance of examining children's body image, particularly their perceived body size, in understanding their anti-fat attitudes.     

Self-reported interference with academic functioning and eating disordered symptoms: associations with multiple dimensions of body image

A sample of 1583 undergraduates completed a multidimensional measure of body image (Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, MBSRQ) and a new scale, the Eating and Body Image Disturbances Academic Interference Scale (EBIDAIS). All five subscales of the MBSRQ were related to higher levels of self-reported interference with academic functioning in correlational analyses. For the entire sample, a regression revealed that only the appearance orientation subscale of the MBSRQ did not explain unique variance associated with EBIDAIS scores. A few gender differences emerged when separate regressions were conducted, however, overweight preoccupation was the variable that predicted the largest unique variance for both genders. The results suggest that academic interference should be considered as a possible variable when evaluating the social and occupational problems associated with body image disturbance.     

Implications of accuracy, sensitivity, and variability of body size estimations to disordered eating

The current study was conducted to investigate the relationships between body size estimations and disordered eating symptomatology. The method of constant stimuli was used to derive three measures of self-perceived body size in 93 women: (1) accuracy of body size estimations (body image distortion); (2) sensitivity in discriminating body size within blocks of trials (body image sensitivity); and (3) variability in making body size estimations between blocks of trials (body image variability). Participants also completed measures of disordered eating. Although body image distortion correlated with dietary restraint and eating concern, body image variability accounted for additional variance in these variables, as well as variance in binge eating. The relationships involving body image variability were found to be mediated by body dissatisfaction and internalization of the thin ideal. Together, these results are consistent with the proposition that body image variability is a significant factor in disordered eating.     

The Effects of Weight Loss Attempts, Exercise Initiation, and Dietary Practices on Health Related Quality of Life

This study (N = 98) randomly placed participants in either a higher protein or American Heart Association diet group with each group initiating an aerobic exercise program. Body composition (BC) was measured using four different methodologies (DEXA, BIA, skinfold, BMI) along with height and weight, while Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) changes were measured using the Medical Outcomes Short Form 36 (SF-36). There were no significant time/diet interactions in HRQOL scores, body fat measures, and weight with the exception of Role-Physical scores (p = .006) with posttest scores higher in participants in Diet 1. Role-Physical scores changed significantly in participants in Diet 1 (p = .0001) and Diet 2 (p = .026) with higher posttest scores in each group. Social functioning had a significant main effect for time in both groups with pretest scores in both diet groups lower than their respective posttest scores (p = .015). HRQOL pretest scores were not significantly different between groups at baseline (p = .56). ANOVA revealed no significant differences in average calories between groups (p = .88). Analysis revealed no differences in exercise in minutes (p = .66) nor statistically significant changes in BC or weight (p = .65). Conclusions: Improvements in HRQOL were demonstrated in two subscales related to physiological and psychological functioning. These novel findings add to literature suggesting that HRQOL, at least concerning social functioning, work and other daily activities (Role-Physical) may improve by initiating an exercise and dietary program even when weight loss or BC improvements have been unsuccessful.     

Body image disturbance and skin bleaching

This study looks at body image disturbance among Jamaicans who bleach their skin. The hypothesis states that there is a positive relationship between skin bleaching and body image disturbance. The study used a convenience sample of 160 participants with a skin bleaching group (n = 80) and a non‐bleaching comparison group (n = 80). The instrument included demographic questions, the body image disturbance questionnaire (BIDQ), and questions about skin bleaching. The results of a t‐test revealed that the skin bleaching group (M = 1.5255, SD = 0.42169) was not significantly different from the non‐bleaching group (M = 1.4938, SD = 0.74217) in terms of body image disturbance, t(158) = 0.333, p = .740. The participants who bleached did not suffer from body image disturbance. Self‐reports revealed that they bleached to acquire beauty, attract a partner, elude the police, and market skin bleaching products. The practice was fashionable and popular and it made some participants feel good, while others were fans of a popular musical artiste who bleached his skin. The majority of participants bleached because of the perceived personal, social, and entrepreneurial benefits of the practice and not because they suffered emotional distress, anxiety, and functional impairment because of their skin colour. However, there was some level of BID among the minority of participants who argued that they bleached because they wanted to be pretty so they were emotionally distressed about there body image and experienced functional impairment.     

Empirically Corrected Rescaled Statistics for SEM with Small N and Large p

Survey data often contain many variables. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is commonly used in analyzing such data. With typical nonnormally distributed data in practice, a rescaled statistic T_rml proposed by Satorra and Bentler was recommended in the literature of SEM. However, T_rml has been shown to be problematic when the sample size N is small and/or the number of variables p is large. There does not exist a reliable test statistic for SEM with small N or large p, especially with nonnormally distributed data. Following the principle of Bartlett correction, this article develops empirical corrections to T_rml so that the mean of the empirically corrected statistics approximately equals the degrees of freedom of the nominal chi-square distribution. Results show that empirically corrected statistics control type I errors reasonably well even when N is smaller than 2p, where T_rml may reject the correct model 100% even for normally distributed data. The application of the empirically corrected statistics is illustrated via a real data example.     

Decreased attention to object size information in scale errors performers

Young children sometimes make serious attempts to perform impossible actions on miniature objects as if they were full-size objects. The existing explanations of these curious action errors assume (but never explicitly tested) children's decreased attention to object size information. This study investigated the attention to object size information in scale errors performers. Two groups of children aged 18–25 months (N = 52) and 48–60 months (N = 23) were tested in two consecutive tasks: an action task that replicated the original scale errors elicitation situation, and a looking task that involved watching on a computer screen actions performed with adequate to inadequate size object. Our key finding – that children performing scale errors in the action task subsequently pay less attention to size changes than non-scale errors performers in the looking task – suggests that the origins of scale errors in childhood operate already at the perceptual level, and not at the action level.