TY - JOUR A1 - Skowronski, Marika A1 - Busching, Robert A1 - Krahé, Barbara T1 - Women’s exposure to sexualized TV, self-objectification, and consideration of cosmetic surgery BT - the role of age JF - Psychology of popular media N2 - Public Policy Relevance Statement TV is full of content presenting women in a sexualized way, with a focus on their sexual appearance and appeal to others. We found that across an age spectrum from 15 to 72 years, the more women watched sexualized TV, the more concerned they were about their body; a link between watching sexualized TV and considering cosmetic surgery was found only for women above the age of 31. Adding to the evidence documenting negative consequences of sexualized media use on young women's body image, this study is a first indicator that these might also apply to women across a broader age spectrum.
Extensive research has documented links between sexualized media use and body image concerns. Previous findings are based largely on female adolescents or young adults, although objectification theory predicts changes of body image concerns with age. Therefore, the current study investigated the link of sexualized TV exposure (STE) with self-objectification and consideration of cosmetic surgery within the framework of objectification theory in a sample of 519 female participants between the age of 15 and 72 (M = 39.43 years). Participants completed measures of STE, appearance-ideal internalization, valuing appearance over competence, body surveillance, and consideration of cosmetic surgery. Structural equation modeling revealed that STE was indirectly linked with consideration of cosmetic surgery via valuing appearance over competence and body surveillance. Age was negatively related to internalization, valuing appearance over competence, and body surveillance, but did not moderate the links between STE and body image. Older women scored lower on the body-related variables, but the associations between STE and self-objectification were the same across the age spectrum. STE predicted consideration of cosmetic surgery only for women over 31 years of age. Implications concerning the role of age in linking sexualized media to self-objectification are discussed. KW - television KW - sexualization KW - age KW - body image KW - self-objectification Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000348 SN - 2160-4143 SN - 2160-4142 VL - 11 IS - 2 SP - 117 EP - 124 PB - American Psychological Association CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Skowronski, Marika A1 - Busching, Robert A1 - Krahé, Barbara T1 - Predicting adolescents’ self-objectification from sexualized video game and Instagram use BT - A longitudinal study JF - Sex roles : a journal of research N2 - A growing body of research has demonstrated negative effects of sexualization in the media on adolescents' body image, but longitudinal studies and research including interactive and social media are scarce. The current study explored the longitudinal associations of adolescents' use of sexualized video games (SVG) and sexualized Instagram images (SII) with body image concerns. Specifically, our study examined relations between adolescents' SVG and SII use and appearance comparisons, thin- and muscular-ideal internalization, valuing appearance over competence, and body surveillance. A sample of 660 German adolescents (327 female, 333 male;M-age = 15.09 years) participated in two waves with an interval of 6 months. A structural equation model showed that SVG and SII use at Time 1 predicted body surveillance indirectly via valuing appearance over competence at Time 2. Furthermore, SVG and SII use indirectly predicted both thin- and muscular-ideal internalization through appearance comparisons at Time 1. In turn, thin-ideal internalization at Time 1 predicted body surveillance indirectly via valuing appearance over competence at Time 2. The results indicate that sexualization in video games and on Instagram can play an important role in increasing body image concerns among adolescents. We discuss the findings with respect to objectification theory and the predictive value of including appearance comparisons in models explaining the relation between sexualized media and self-objectification. KW - social media KW - computer games KW - sexualization KW - body image KW - self-objectification Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01187-1 SN - 0360-0025 SN - 1573-2762 VL - 84 IS - 9-10 SP - 584 EP - 598 PB - Springer CY - New York ER -