Eating Behaviors 15 (2014) 679–682
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Eating Behaviors
Media matters for boys too! The role of specific magazine types and television programs in the drive for thinness and muscularity in adolescent boys Amy Slater a,⁎, Marika Tiggemann b a b
Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom School of Psychology, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 27 February 2014 Received in revised form 1 August 2014 Accepted 1 October 2014 Available online 13 October 2014 Keywords: Media Adolescent Boys Drive for thinness Drive for muscularity
a b s t r a c t This study examined the role of specific magazine types and television programs on drive for thinness and muscularity in adolescent boys. A sample of 182 adolescent boys with an average age of 15.2 years completed questionnaire measures of magazine and television consumption, drive for thinness and drive for muscularity. Different media genres showed varying relationships with drive for thinness and muscularity. Specifically, the consumption of men's magazines and the viewing of soap operas emerged as significant unique predictors of drive for thinness, with the consumption of men's magazines also offering unique prediction of drive for muscularity. A comprehensive approach that considers both type and genre of media is critical in increasing our understanding of the complex relationships between media exposure and disordered eating in adolescent boys. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Although boys have typically experienced much lower levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating than girls, there is now considerable evidence to suggest that these are now salient issues for boys (Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2001). Whereas girls commonly express a desire for a thinner body, body dissatisfaction in boys is often expressed by a desire for a larger, more muscular body (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2001). This desire for muscularity may have damaging consequences, with potential links to exercise dependence, steroid use (vandenBerg, Neumark-Sztainer, Cafri, & Wall, 2007) and disordered eating (Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2003). The mass media are often cited as the most powerful sociocultural influence on body dissatisfaction and eating disorders (e.g., Levine & Murnen, 2009). In particular, the media are held responsible for the transmission of messages about the ideal body, which for boys and men is a lean but highly muscular, V-shaped figure, often referred to as the ‘muscular mesomorph’ (Mishkind, Rodin, Silberstein, & StriegelMoore, 1986). Although most of the existing research has investigated women, a few studies have suggested that exposure to idealized muscular media images is similarly related to lower body esteem (Hobza & Rochlen, 2009; Hobza, Walker, Yakushko, & Peugh, 2007), increased ⁎ Corresponding author at: Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol BS16 1QY, United Kingdom. Tel.: +44 117 3283975. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Slater).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.10.002 1471-0153/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
muscle dissatisfaction (Agliata & Tantleff-Dunn, 2004; Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2009) and drive for muscularity in adult men (Cramblitt & Pritchard, 2013). However, two studies with adolescent boys found no relationship between body image or eating disorder symptomatology and magazine exposure (Jones, Vigfusdottir, & Lee, 2004) or thin-ideal media exposure (selected television programs and magazines) (Harrison, 2000). Thus the first aim of the current study was to further investigate the link between media exposure and drive for thinness and drive for muscularity in adolescent boys. One limitation of the existing research is that different forms of media (television, magazines) have largely been considered equivalent, often being evaluated using a composite or broadband measure (Stice, Schupakneuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994; Tiggemann, 2003). Yet different types of media may have different effects. For example, Botta (2003) found that reading fashion magazines was related to decreased drive for muscularity while reading health/fitness magazines was related to increased drive for muscularity in adolescent boys, while Tiggemann (2005) found that the watching of soap operas was related to drive for thinness and drive for muscularity, and the watching of music video programs was related to drive for muscularity in adolescent boys. In sum, the relationship between media exposure and body image and disordered eating in adolescent boys (as in other groups) is likely dependent on the type and specific format of media. The current study aimed to provide a more detailed examination of the differential impact of different types of magazines and television programs on the drives for thinness and muscularity in adolescent boys.
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A. Slater, M. Tiggemann / Eating Behaviors 15 (2014) 679–682
2. Method 2.1. Participants Participants were 182 adolescent boys aged 13–17 years (mean age = 15.22, SD = .59) from two co-educational, public secondary schools of medium to high socio-economic status in Adelaide, South Australia. The boys were in Year 9 (n = 108) and Year 10 (n = 74) of schooling. Students attending these two schools are predominately (N 95%) White. The boys had an average height of 175 cm (SD = 9.45) and an average weight of 63.71 kg (SD = 12.77), resulting in an average Body Mass Index (BMI) of 21.04 (SD = 3.14). 2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Magazine exposure Consumption of specific types of magazines was measured by asking participants “How often do you read the following types of magazines”: fashion/teen magazines (e.g. Cosmopolitan, Girlfriend), Men's Magazines (e.g. FHM, Ralph), Entertainment Magazines (e.g. TV Week, New Weekly), Sport/Fitness Magazines (e.g. Sports Illustrated, Surfing Life) and Music Magazines (e.g. Rolling Stone, Smash Hit). Participants indicated their frequency of consumption using a 5 point scale (0 = never to 4 = always). 2.2.2. Television exposure Overall television exposure was measured by asking participants how many hours they spent watching television on each specified day of the week and summing these times. The viewing of specific programs was measured by asking “How often do you watch the following types of television programs”: Music Videos (e.g. Video Hits, Rage), Soap Operas (e.g. Home & Away, Neighbours), Sit-Coms (e.g. Friends, Frasier), Drama (e.g. All Saints, CSI), Sports Programs (e.g. Swimming, The Footy Show) and Reality Programs (e.g. Australian Idol, The Block). Frequency of consumption was indicated as for magazine consumption. 2.2.3. Disordered eating Two scales were used in the present study as measures of disordered eating. The first was the Drive for Thinness subscale of the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI; Garner, Olmstead, & Polivy, 1983). Participants respond to 7 items using a 6-point scale ranging from never (1) to always (6). Here the entire range of possible scores was used, as recommended for non-clinical samples by Schoemaker, van Strien, and van der Staak (1994). This results in a range of total possible scores from 7 to 42, with higher scores indicating greater drive for thinness. Garner et al. (1983) reported an internal reliability (α) of .85 for this subscale in a sample of non-clinical women. In the current sample, the reliability coefficient was also .85. The current study also included the Drive for Muscularity scale developed by Yelland and Tiggemann (2003) as a pertinent indicator of disordered eating symptomatology in adolescent boys. This 7-item scale was modeled on the Drive for Thinness items, but changed to assess the pursuit of muscularity (e.g. “I exaggerate or magnify the importance of muscles”). Response options are as for the EDI subscales, with total possible scores also ranging from 7 to 42. The construct and criterion validity of this scale have recently been demonstrated (Tod, Morrison, & Edwards, 2012a,b). In the current sample, the internal reliability was α = .88. 2.3. Procedure Approval to conduct the present study was received from the Institutional Review Board. The adolescents in the current study were part of a larger study on sport participation and body image, some of the findings of which have been published elsewhere (Slater & Tiggemann, 2010, 2011). Parental consent was obtained for each
student and all boys completed an assent form. The questionnaires were administered in pencil and paper format by the first author at school in class groups. Missing values ranged from 0.0% (for fashion magazines, men's magazines and music magazines) to a maximum of 6.6% (for sports/fitness magazines). Given the overall low levels of missing data, listwise and pairwise deletion was deemed appropriate (Bennett, 2001). 3. Results The means and standard deviations for all variables are reported in Table 1. As can be seen, with regard to magazine consumption, boys were most likely to report reading men's magazines, followed by sport/fitness magazines, music magazines and entertainment magazines. With regard to television consumption, the boys reported watching 17.6 h of television per week, or just over 2.5 h per day. Sports programs were the genre reported as most watched, followed by dramas, sit-coms, music videos, reality programs and lastly, soap operas. 3.1. Relationships between media exposure and Drive for Thinness and Muscularity The correlations between media types and formats and drive for thinness and muscularity are also presented in Table 1. For magazine consumption, the reading of men's magazines was positively correlated with both drive for thinness and drive for muscularity. Consumption of sports and entertainment magazines was also positively correlated with drive for muscularity. Total television viewing time showed no significant correlation with drive for thinness or drive for muscularity. However, the watching of soap operas was associated with both drive for thinness and drive for muscularity, and the watching of reality programs was associated with drive for thinness. To assess the unique contribution of the significant media genres (i.e., men's magazines, sports magazines, entertainment magazines, reality programs, soap operas), two multiple regression analyses were conducted to predict drive for thinness and drive for muscularity separately. The results indicated that the combined media genres offered significant prediction of drive for thinness, R2 = .15, F(5,163) = 5.52, p = .00, with men's magazines (β = .15, p = .05) and soap operas Table 1 Means (and standard deviations) for all variables, and correlations between media exposure and Drive for Thinness and Drive for Muscularity. Variable
Descriptive statistics
Correlations with disordered eating
Range
Drive for Thinness
Magazines Men's Magazines Sport/Fitness Magazines Music Magazines Entertainment Magazines Fashion/Teen Magazines
0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4
Television TV viewing per week Sports Programs Drama Sit-Coms Music Videos Reality Programs Soap Operas Disordered eating Drive for Thinness Drive for Muscularity ⁎ p b .05 ⁎⁎ p b .01
Mean (SD)
1.22 (1.24) 0.93 (1.10) 0.84 (1.04) 0.68 (0.99) 0.20 (0.57)
.20⁎⁎ .12 .08 .07 .04
Hours 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4
17.62 (9.18) 2.24 (1.36) 2.06 (1.27) 1.92 (1.08) 1.72 (1.05) 1.53 (1.11) 1.04 (1.17)
.12 .02 .05 −.08 −.01 .19⁎ .34⁎⁎
7–42 7–42
13.23 (6.51) 17.25 (7.57)
Drive for Muscularity .27⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎ .18⁎ .13 .09 −.00 .05 .06 .02 −.02 .14 .17⁎
A. Slater, M. Tiggemann / Eating Behaviors 15 (2014) 679–682
(β = .29, p = .00) showing significant unique prediction. The combined genres also significantly predicted drive for muscularity, R2 = .11, F(5,164) = 3.83, p = .00, with men's magazines as the only significant unique predictor, β = .17, p = .03. 4. Discussion The current study shows that the effect of both television and magazines on boys' drive for thinness and drive for muscularity varies depending on genre. A number of different types of magazines and television programs showed small positive correlations with either drive for thinness or muscularity. With respect to magazine consumption, our most noteworthy finding was that the reading of men's magazines (e.g., FHM) emerged as a unique predictor of both drive for thinness and muscularity. While the target readership of such magazines may be somewhat older than the current sample, these men's magazines were the most popularly read genre by the adolescent boys here. In one study of UK undergraduate men, Giles and Close (2008) similarly demonstrated that exposure to ‘lad’ magazines was related to increased drive for muscularity. This type of magazine routinely features images of scantily-clad women and celebrities, as well as articles about sports, entertainment and sex. With girls, body dissatisfaction is attributed to comparison of one's own body to the images of ultrathin women and girls presented in fashion magazines. For boys, while some comparison with images of lean and muscular men is possible in men's magazines, the majority of images in these magazines are of women. Perhaps boys and men aspire to a leaner, more muscular physique so that they might appear desirable to the ultra-thin, scantily clad women who feature so heavily in these magazines. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the link between this type of magazine and disordered eating in adolescent boys. Experimental studies that assess the immediate impact of consumption of ‘lads’ magazine on young boys' attitudes and beliefs would provide a valuable extension to the current work. Our findings for television indicate that total television viewing time shows no relationship to drive for thinness or drive for muscularity, consistent with previous findings for undergraduate women and adolescent girls (Tiggemann, 2003; Tiggemann & Pickering, 1996). However, when specific television genres were examined the watching of soap operas emerged as a unique significant predictor of the drive for thinness, consistent with Tiggemann's (2005) findings with adolescent boys. A distinguishing feature of soap operas is their sense of “realness”, as well as their portrayal of the idea that appearance and muscularity are associated with, and indeed vital to, success. The current study supports the suggestion that consumption of this genre of television may negatively impact on how boys feel about their own bodies and eating attitudes. The current study was the first to include an increasingly popular form of television, namely reality programs (e.g., Australian Idol, The Biggest Loser, The Bachelor). Here, the viewing of reality programs was positively related to drive for thinness in the correlations, although it did not emerge as a unique predictor in the regression analyses. Given the proliferation of this type of program, and their appeal to the adolescent audience, this genre should be further investigated in future research. Although we know of no studies that have examined the portrayal of male (or female) bodies in reality television programs, it is clear that many programs within this genre emphasize the importance of appearance. Indeed, sometimes cast members or ‘contestants’ are explicitly judged on their appearance and bodies, either by ‘judges’, other contestants, or by the viewing public. In this way the notion that success in life is inextricably linked to appearance and body weight and shape appears similar to that of soap operas, although now with ‘real’ people. Of course the findings of the current study must be interpreted within the context of a number of limitations. Firstly, participants were recruited from only two schools which were relatively homogenous
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with respect to ethnic and socioeconomic background and, as such, the findings are limited in their generalizability. Second, although the current study aimed to provide a more comprehensive examination of a range of media types and genres, the measures were still rather simple and broad, and future research could usefully develop more specific and sophisticated measures of media exposure. Third, the modest size of the correlations must be noted. Finally, the correlational nature of the study means that causality cannot be established. Thus, while it is tempting to conclude that consuming particular types of media leads to increased drive for thinness or muscularity, it is also plausible that boys who are already concerned about their bodies are more likely to seek out particular types of media. Longitudinal studies are necessary to disentangle and understand the temporal relationships between media consumption and disordered eating in adolescent boys. Despite these limitations, the current study has added to the existing knowledge on the relationship between media consumption and disordered eating symptomatology in adolescent boys, and has specifically identified men's magazines and soap operas as important. These findings might usefully be incorporated into body image and eating disorder prevention programs. Role of funding sources Funding for this study was provided by an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) awarded to the first author. Contributors AS and MT designed the study. AS performed the data collection and data analysis. AS wrote the first draft of the manuscript. MT reviewed and contributed to revisions of the manuscript. Both authors have approved the final manuscript. Conflict of interest None.
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Mishkind, M.E., Rodin, J., Silberstein, L.R., & Striegel-Moore, R.H. (1986). The embodiment of masculinity: Cultural, psychological, and behavioral dimensions. American Behavioral Scientist, 29(5), 545–562, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/000276486029005004. Ricciardelli, L.A., & McCabe, M.P. (2001). Self-esteem and negative affect as moderators of sociocultural influences on body dissatisfaction, strategies to decrease weight, and strategies to increase muscles among adolescent boys and girls. Sex Roles, 44(3–4), 189–207, http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1010955120359. Ricciardelli, L.A., & McCabe, M.P. (2003). Sociocultural and individual influences on muscle gain and weight loss strategies among adolescent boys and girls. Psychology in the Schools, 40(2), 209–224, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pits.10075. Schoemaker, C., van Strien, T., & van der Staak, C. (1994). Validation of the eating disorders inventory in a nonclinical population using transformed and untransformed responses. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 15(4), 387–393, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1002/eat.2260150409. Slater, A., & Tiggemann, M. (2010). Body image and disordered eating in adolescent girls and boys: A test of objectification theory. Sex Roles, 63(1–2), 42–49, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/s11199-010-9794-2. Slater, A., & Tiggemann, M. (2011). Gender differences in adolescent sport participation, teasing, self-objectification and body image concerns. Journal of Adolescence, 34(3), 455–463, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.06.007. Stice, E., Schupakneuberg, E., Shaw, H.E., & Stein, R.I. (1994). Relation of media exposure to eating disorder symptomatology — An examination of mediating mechanisms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103(4), 836–840.
Tiggemann, M. (2003). Media exposure, body dissatisfaction and disordered eating: Television and magazines are not the same! European Eating Disorders Review, 11(5), 418–430, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/erv.502. Tiggemann, M. (2005). Television and adolescent body image: The role of program content and viewing motivation. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24(3), 361–381, http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jscp.24.3.361.65623. Tiggemann, M., & Pickering, A.S. (1996). Role of television in adolescent women's body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 20(2), 199–203, http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/%28SICI%291098-108X%28199609%2920: 2%3C199::AID-EAT11%3E3.0.CO;2-Z. Tod, D., Morrison, T.G., & Edwards, C. (2012a). Evaluating validity and test–retest reliability in four drive for muscularity questionnaires. Body Image, 9(3), 425–428, http://dx. doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.02.001. Tod, D., Morrison, T.G., & Edwards, C. (2012b). Psychometric properties of Yelland and Tiggemann's Drive for Muscularity Scale. Body Image, 9(3), 421–424, http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2012.03.003. vandenBerg, P., Neumark-Sztainer, D., Cafri, G., & Wall, M. (2007). Steroid use among adolescents: Longitudinal findings from Project EAT. Pediatrics, 119(3), 476–486, http:// dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-2529. Yelland, C., & Tiggemann, M. (2003). Muscularity and the gay ideal: Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in homosexual men. Eating Behaviors, 4(2), 107–116, http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1471-0153%2803%2900014-X.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Eating Behaviors
Media matters for boys too! The role of specific magazine types and television programs in the drive for thinness and muscularity in adolescent boys Amy Slater a,⁎, Marika Tiggemann b a b
Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom School of Psychology, Flinders University, South Australia, Australia
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 27 February 2014 Received in revised form 1 August 2014 Accepted 1 October 2014 Available online 13 October 2014 Keywords: Media Adolescent Boys Drive for thinness Drive for muscularity
a b s t r a c t This study examined the role of specific magazine types and television programs on drive for thinness and muscularity in adolescent boys. A sample of 182 adolescent boys with an average age of 15.2 years completed questionnaire measures of magazine and television consumption, drive for thinness and drive for muscularity. Different media genres showed varying relationships with drive for thinness and muscularity. Specifically, the consumption of men's magazines and the viewing of soap operas emerged as significant unique predictors of drive for thinness, with the consumption of men's magazines also offering unique prediction of drive for muscularity. A comprehensive approach that considers both type and genre of media is critical in increasing our understanding of the complex relationships between media exposure and disordered eating in adolescent boys. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Although boys have typically experienced much lower levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating than girls, there is now considerable evidence to suggest that these are now salient issues for boys (Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2001). Whereas girls commonly express a desire for a thinner body, body dissatisfaction in boys is often expressed by a desire for a larger, more muscular body (McCabe & Ricciardelli, 2001). This desire for muscularity may have damaging consequences, with potential links to exercise dependence, steroid use (vandenBerg, Neumark-Sztainer, Cafri, & Wall, 2007) and disordered eating (Ricciardelli & McCabe, 2003). The mass media are often cited as the most powerful sociocultural influence on body dissatisfaction and eating disorders (e.g., Levine & Murnen, 2009). In particular, the media are held responsible for the transmission of messages about the ideal body, which for boys and men is a lean but highly muscular, V-shaped figure, often referred to as the ‘muscular mesomorph’ (Mishkind, Rodin, Silberstein, & StriegelMoore, 1986). Although most of the existing research has investigated women, a few studies have suggested that exposure to idealized muscular media images is similarly related to lower body esteem (Hobza & Rochlen, 2009; Hobza, Walker, Yakushko, & Peugh, 2007), increased ⁎ Corresponding author at: Centre for Appearance Research, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus, Bristol BS16 1QY, United Kingdom. Tel.: +44 117 3283975. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Slater).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2014.10.002 1471-0153/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
muscle dissatisfaction (Agliata & Tantleff-Dunn, 2004; Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2009) and drive for muscularity in adult men (Cramblitt & Pritchard, 2013). However, two studies with adolescent boys found no relationship between body image or eating disorder symptomatology and magazine exposure (Jones, Vigfusdottir, & Lee, 2004) or thin-ideal media exposure (selected television programs and magazines) (Harrison, 2000). Thus the first aim of the current study was to further investigate the link between media exposure and drive for thinness and drive for muscularity in adolescent boys. One limitation of the existing research is that different forms of media (television, magazines) have largely been considered equivalent, often being evaluated using a composite or broadband measure (Stice, Schupakneuberg, Shaw, & Stein, 1994; Tiggemann, 2003). Yet different types of media may have different effects. For example, Botta (2003) found that reading fashion magazines was related to decreased drive for muscularity while reading health/fitness magazines was related to increased drive for muscularity in adolescent boys, while Tiggemann (2005) found that the watching of soap operas was related to drive for thinness and drive for muscularity, and the watching of music video programs was related to drive for muscularity in adolescent boys. In sum, the relationship between media exposure and body image and disordered eating in adolescent boys (as in other groups) is likely dependent on the type and specific format of media. The current study aimed to provide a more detailed examination of the differential impact of different types of magazines and television programs on the drives for thinness and muscularity in adolescent boys.
680
A. Slater, M. Tiggemann / Eating Behaviors 15 (2014) 679–682
2. Method 2.1. Participants Participants were 182 adolescent boys aged 13–17 years (mean age = 15.22, SD = .59) from two co-educational, public secondary schools of medium to high socio-economic status in Adelaide, South Australia. The boys were in Year 9 (n = 108) and Year 10 (n = 74) of schooling. Students attending these two schools are predominately (N 95%) White. The boys had an average height of 175 cm (SD = 9.45) and an average weight of 63.71 kg (SD = 12.77), resulting in an average Body Mass Index (BMI) of 21.04 (SD = 3.14). 2.2. Measures 2.2.1. Magazine exposure Consumption of specific types of magazines was measured by asking participants “How often do you read the following types of magazines”: fashion/teen magazines (e.g. Cosmopolitan, Girlfriend), Men's Magazines (e.g. FHM, Ralph), Entertainment Magazines (e.g. TV Week, New Weekly), Sport/Fitness Magazines (e.g. Sports Illustrated, Surfing Life) and Music Magazines (e.g. Rolling Stone, Smash Hit). Participants indicated their frequency of consumption using a 5 point scale (0 = never to 4 = always). 2.2.2. Television exposure Overall television exposure was measured by asking participants how many hours they spent watching television on each specified day of the week and summing these times. The viewing of specific programs was measured by asking “How often do you watch the following types of television programs”: Music Videos (e.g. Video Hits, Rage), Soap Operas (e.g. Home & Away, Neighbours), Sit-Coms (e.g. Friends, Frasier), Drama (e.g. All Saints, CSI), Sports Programs (e.g. Swimming, The Footy Show) and Reality Programs (e.g. Australian Idol, The Block). Frequency of consumption was indicated as for magazine consumption. 2.2.3. Disordered eating Two scales were used in the present study as measures of disordered eating. The first was the Drive for Thinness subscale of the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI; Garner, Olmstead, & Polivy, 1983). Participants respond to 7 items using a 6-point scale ranging from never (1) to always (6). Here the entire range of possible scores was used, as recommended for non-clinical samples by Schoemaker, van Strien, and van der Staak (1994). This results in a range of total possible scores from 7 to 42, with higher scores indicating greater drive for thinness. Garner et al. (1983) reported an internal reliability (α) of .85 for this subscale in a sample of non-clinical women. In the current sample, the reliability coefficient was also .85. The current study also included the Drive for Muscularity scale developed by Yelland and Tiggemann (2003) as a pertinent indicator of disordered eating symptomatology in adolescent boys. This 7-item scale was modeled on the Drive for Thinness items, but changed to assess the pursuit of muscularity (e.g. “I exaggerate or magnify the importance of muscles”). Response options are as for the EDI subscales, with total possible scores also ranging from 7 to 42. The construct and criterion validity of this scale have recently been demonstrated (Tod, Morrison, & Edwards, 2012a,b). In the current sample, the internal reliability was α = .88. 2.3. Procedure Approval to conduct the present study was received from the Institutional Review Board. The adolescents in the current study were part of a larger study on sport participation and body image, some of the findings of which have been published elsewhere (Slater & Tiggemann, 2010, 2011). Parental consent was obtained for each
student and all boys completed an assent form. The questionnaires were administered in pencil and paper format by the first author at school in class groups. Missing values ranged from 0.0% (for fashion magazines, men's magazines and music magazines) to a maximum of 6.6% (for sports/fitness magazines). Given the overall low levels of missing data, listwise and pairwise deletion was deemed appropriate (Bennett, 2001). 3. Results The means and standard deviations for all variables are reported in Table 1. As can be seen, with regard to magazine consumption, boys were most likely to report reading men's magazines, followed by sport/fitness magazines, music magazines and entertainment magazines. With regard to television consumption, the boys reported watching 17.6 h of television per week, or just over 2.5 h per day. Sports programs were the genre reported as most watched, followed by dramas, sit-coms, music videos, reality programs and lastly, soap operas. 3.1. Relationships between media exposure and Drive for Thinness and Muscularity The correlations between media types and formats and drive for thinness and muscularity are also presented in Table 1. For magazine consumption, the reading of men's magazines was positively correlated with both drive for thinness and drive for muscularity. Consumption of sports and entertainment magazines was also positively correlated with drive for muscularity. Total television viewing time showed no significant correlation with drive for thinness or drive for muscularity. However, the watching of soap operas was associated with both drive for thinness and drive for muscularity, and the watching of reality programs was associated with drive for thinness. To assess the unique contribution of the significant media genres (i.e., men's magazines, sports magazines, entertainment magazines, reality programs, soap operas), two multiple regression analyses were conducted to predict drive for thinness and drive for muscularity separately. The results indicated that the combined media genres offered significant prediction of drive for thinness, R2 = .15, F(5,163) = 5.52, p = .00, with men's magazines (β = .15, p = .05) and soap operas Table 1 Means (and standard deviations) for all variables, and correlations between media exposure and Drive for Thinness and Drive for Muscularity. Variable
Descriptive statistics
Correlations with disordered eating
Range
Drive for Thinness
Magazines Men's Magazines Sport/Fitness Magazines Music Magazines Entertainment Magazines Fashion/Teen Magazines
0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4
Television TV viewing per week Sports Programs Drama Sit-Coms Music Videos Reality Programs Soap Operas Disordered eating Drive for Thinness Drive for Muscularity ⁎ p b .05 ⁎⁎ p b .01
Mean (SD)
1.22 (1.24) 0.93 (1.10) 0.84 (1.04) 0.68 (0.99) 0.20 (0.57)
.20⁎⁎ .12 .08 .07 .04
Hours 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4 0–4
17.62 (9.18) 2.24 (1.36) 2.06 (1.27) 1.92 (1.08) 1.72 (1.05) 1.53 (1.11) 1.04 (1.17)
.12 .02 .05 −.08 −.01 .19⁎ .34⁎⁎
7–42 7–42
13.23 (6.51) 17.25 (7.57)
Drive for Muscularity .27⁎⁎ .21⁎⁎ .18⁎ .13 .09 −.00 .05 .06 .02 −.02 .14 .17⁎
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(β = .29, p = .00) showing significant unique prediction. The combined genres also significantly predicted drive for muscularity, R2 = .11, F(5,164) = 3.83, p = .00, with men's magazines as the only significant unique predictor, β = .17, p = .03. 4. Discussion The current study shows that the effect of both television and magazines on boys' drive for thinness and drive for muscularity varies depending on genre. A number of different types of magazines and television programs showed small positive correlations with either drive for thinness or muscularity. With respect to magazine consumption, our most noteworthy finding was that the reading of men's magazines (e.g., FHM) emerged as a unique predictor of both drive for thinness and muscularity. While the target readership of such magazines may be somewhat older than the current sample, these men's magazines were the most popularly read genre by the adolescent boys here. In one study of UK undergraduate men, Giles and Close (2008) similarly demonstrated that exposure to ‘lad’ magazines was related to increased drive for muscularity. This type of magazine routinely features images of scantily-clad women and celebrities, as well as articles about sports, entertainment and sex. With girls, body dissatisfaction is attributed to comparison of one's own body to the images of ultrathin women and girls presented in fashion magazines. For boys, while some comparison with images of lean and muscular men is possible in men's magazines, the majority of images in these magazines are of women. Perhaps boys and men aspire to a leaner, more muscular physique so that they might appear desirable to the ultra-thin, scantily clad women who feature so heavily in these magazines. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the link between this type of magazine and disordered eating in adolescent boys. Experimental studies that assess the immediate impact of consumption of ‘lads’ magazine on young boys' attitudes and beliefs would provide a valuable extension to the current work. Our findings for television indicate that total television viewing time shows no relationship to drive for thinness or drive for muscularity, consistent with previous findings for undergraduate women and adolescent girls (Tiggemann, 2003; Tiggemann & Pickering, 1996). However, when specific television genres were examined the watching of soap operas emerged as a unique significant predictor of the drive for thinness, consistent with Tiggemann's (2005) findings with adolescent boys. A distinguishing feature of soap operas is their sense of “realness”, as well as their portrayal of the idea that appearance and muscularity are associated with, and indeed vital to, success. The current study supports the suggestion that consumption of this genre of television may negatively impact on how boys feel about their own bodies and eating attitudes. The current study was the first to include an increasingly popular form of television, namely reality programs (e.g., Australian Idol, The Biggest Loser, The Bachelor). Here, the viewing of reality programs was positively related to drive for thinness in the correlations, although it did not emerge as a unique predictor in the regression analyses. Given the proliferation of this type of program, and their appeal to the adolescent audience, this genre should be further investigated in future research. Although we know of no studies that have examined the portrayal of male (or female) bodies in reality television programs, it is clear that many programs within this genre emphasize the importance of appearance. Indeed, sometimes cast members or ‘contestants’ are explicitly judged on their appearance and bodies, either by ‘judges’, other contestants, or by the viewing public. In this way the notion that success in life is inextricably linked to appearance and body weight and shape appears similar to that of soap operas, although now with ‘real’ people. Of course the findings of the current study must be interpreted within the context of a number of limitations. Firstly, participants were recruited from only two schools which were relatively homogenous
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with respect to ethnic and socioeconomic background and, as such, the findings are limited in their generalizability. Second, although the current study aimed to provide a more comprehensive examination of a range of media types and genres, the measures were still rather simple and broad, and future research could usefully develop more specific and sophisticated measures of media exposure. Third, the modest size of the correlations must be noted. Finally, the correlational nature of the study means that causality cannot be established. Thus, while it is tempting to conclude that consuming particular types of media leads to increased drive for thinness or muscularity, it is also plausible that boys who are already concerned about their bodies are more likely to seek out particular types of media. Longitudinal studies are necessary to disentangle and understand the temporal relationships between media consumption and disordered eating in adolescent boys. Despite these limitations, the current study has added to the existing knowledge on the relationship between media consumption and disordered eating symptomatology in adolescent boys, and has specifically identified men's magazines and soap operas as important. These findings might usefully be incorporated into body image and eating disorder prevention programs. Role of funding sources Funding for this study was provided by an Australian Postgraduate Award (APA) awarded to the first author. Contributors AS and MT designed the study. AS performed the data collection and data analysis. AS wrote the first draft of the manuscript. MT reviewed and contributed to revisions of the manuscript. Both authors have approved the final manuscript. Conflict of interest None.
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