Although research has found that body ideals presented by the media influence women's body dissatisfaction, less is known about media's influence on men's body satisfaction. An online survey examining media use, the drive for muscularity, and internalization of appearance and body shape ideals was given to a sample of 311 participants comprised of both men and women. Results indicated (a) the more time men and women reported watching television, the higher their reported drive for muscularity (b) total hours of viewing sports-related, image-focused, and entertainment television related to increased drive for muscularity in women (c) drive for muscularity in men related to watching image-focused television and reading men's health magazines, and (d) internalization of athletic attitudes towards appearance mediated the relationship between total television watched and drive for muscularity in both genders. Clinicians may wish to utilize these findings when treating men and women suffering from drive for muscularity and body dysmorphia.
- drive for muscularity,
- media,
- body ideals,
- internalized images
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mary_pritchard/58/
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Eating Behaviors. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Eating Behaviors, Vol. 14, Issue 4, (2013). DOI: 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2013.08.003.