Media Influences on Body Image Dissatisfaction: the Moderating Role of Collectivism vs. Individualism

Abstract

Body image is a multidimensional construct that reflects attitudes and perceptions about an individual’s physical appearance under the cultural norms and ideals rather than on actual body dimension. Previous research argues that body image problems are linked to many potentially harmful behaviors and mental illnesses, such as obsessive exercise, low self-esteem, substance abuse and eating disorders. Early study primarily focuses on analyzing and comparing body image dissatisfaction of women in particular countries. However, cross-cultural studies need to move on from simply comparing the absolute levels to investigating the relationships between several variables. It is still unclear about the influences of specific cultures, namely collectivism vs. individualism, on both thin-ideal media effect and body image dissatisfaction. There is no integrated research analyzing how various levels of acculturation and different cultures interact, thus further influencing women’s body image dissatisfaction. The underlying psychological mechanisms that resulted from acculturation are still less explored.

Current study hypothesized that thin-ideal media exposure increases women’s body image dissatisfaction. Additionally, thin-ideal media and cultures were predicted to interact. Collectivist group with high acculturation differed from the collectivist group with low acculturation and fell close to the individualist group in body image dissatisfaction. Thus, researcher predicted that thin-ideal media effects on body image dissatisfaction were stronger for females in collectivist group with low acculturation than for the other two culture groups. In general, women living in the collectivistic societies would report more body image dissatisfaction than those living in the individualistic societies.

This study used a 3 x 2 x 2 mixed design to examine the moderating role of collectivism vs. individualism on media influences on body image dissatisfaction among 133 female college students, aged from 18 to 23 years old, attending the University of Texas at Austin.

The results indicated that thin-ideal media significantly increased women’s body image dissatisfaction, whereas healthy media decreased women’s body image dissatisfaction. In general, women living in the collectivistic society reported more body image dissatisfaction than women living in the individualistic society. Contrary to the prediction, body image dissatisfaction of women in the collectivistic group with high acculturation did not differ from those in the collectivistic group with low acculturation. Therefore, the moderating role of acculturation was not found.